The Three Leaps of Wang Lun (66 page)

Eloquent words indeed, by which this supreme Confucian persecutor portrays himself! His delight in the sacred slaughter of heretics, now so gloriously accomplished, was equaled by his zeal in rewarding those who had been instrumental in the execution of his will. By a decree of the 5th day of the eleventh month (Dec. 7),
Shu Hoh-teh, the eminent victor, was promoted to the high dignity of “Minister who stands before the Emperor” or Grand-Chamberlain, and privileged to wear a double-eyed Peacock Feather. He also was invested with the eighth grade of nobility, transferable to his son (
Sh. h
. 49). Even before this glorious carnage, he was a favorite of his august master, for by a decree of the 2nd day of the fourth month of that same year (
Sh. h
. 171) the latter presented him and two other grandees with a copy of the famous giant work
Ku kin t’u shu tsih ch’ing
, to become an heirloom in their families. Nor did the emperor forget the Prefects of the rebellious districts. The insurgent chiefs, conveyed to Peking, had confessed that the Prefects of Sheu-chang and T’ang-yih, Shen Ts’i-i and Ch’en Mei, when captured and garroted by the rebels and prevailed upon to make common cause with them, scolded them so well that they had to pay for it with their lives. The emperor therefore decreed on the 13th of the tenth month (Nov. 16) that these faithful servants of the dynasty, together with the Sub-director of Studies in T’ang-yih, who also for soundly scolding the rebels suffered the same fate, should be proposed by the Board of Civil Office for Imperial distinctions (
Sh. h
. 244). A decree issued ten days later (ibid.) ordains the same with regard to yet other officers murdered in the surprised cities for a similar display of scolding heroism.

His Majesty had however, also to punish. Our readers know the fate which befell the warriors who sallied forth from Old Lin-ts’ing, and could not again retire within its walls. Apart from this, Shu Hoh-teh felt compelled to lodge a complaint for cowardice against Manchus of the garrison at Teh-cheu, who had turned tail to the enemy. This, the emperor declares in a decree (
Sh. h
. 203) of the 10th of the tenth month (Nov. 13), is an unheard-of crime which stains the moral character of the Manchus in general; it is a matter absolutely contrary to the Manchu nature, and therefore
highly deplorable. Shu Hoh-teh shall quickly put to death the principal deserters, in order that others may see what fate awaits them, should they behave in the same way. Those who did not run away quite so fast, shall have their names expunged from the registers of the Bannermen and be banished to Ili, there to be given as slaves to the Oelot; finally, the wives and children of all the deserters shall also be taken off the registers and expelled from Teh-cheu; they can then go where they like. One trembles to think what must have been the fate of those poor women and children, cast out helpless amongst a populace which intensely hates the Manchus as the instruments for oppression in the hands of the ruler. Thus even outside the pale of heretical life the murderous demon of fanaticism found human victims. But what are we to think ourselves of those Manchu Bannermen wavering when ordered to attack the rebels? Had long garrison life really effeminated them? Or were they also tainted with heresy?

The insurrection, in the suppression of which the Viceroy of Chihli, Cheu Yuen-li, took so active a part, moved this grandee to give his wise opinion to the emperor about the political line of conduct of the dynasty with respect to heresy. Wang Lun’s rebellion, he argued, as stated in a decree of the 26th day of the tenth month or the Nov. 29 (
Sh. h
. 256)—emanated from heretical sectarianism. The White Lotus sect, that of the White Yang, that of the Pure Water, and any other, begin with holding meetings for Sutra readings. Then they collect contributions and spread their heresies abroad, while they practice boxing and fencing; and this leads to fomentation of rebellion. Now if these heretical sects are to be destroyed to the root, the supervision of the wards must first of all everywhere become much stricter than it is, and the old ordinances regarding this part of the administration must be maintained with increased severity. Indeed, the emperor complains, hitherto these ordinances
have been treated by the Prefects as a dead letter. Instructions shall therefore be sent to the Viceroys and Provincial Governors to take measures against the sects as proposed by their colleague of Chihli.—Such is the political sagacity of intolerance, the logic of fanaticism! That it is persecution which provokes rebellion, the persecutor does not see;—in order to put down the spirit of rebellion, he reasons, we must redouble the severity of the persecution!

While that short, but bloody religious war was raging, a fierce persecution of heresy was set on foot in Honan. Only a very few details are given us about it, in a decree of the 21st of the ninth month or the Oct. 25 (
Sh. h
. 256). In Peking, an engraver had been detained, called Ho T’ing-pang, from the district of Siang-fu, belonging to Khai-fung, the capital of Honan. He was one of the twelve chiefs of an association purporting to collect moneys for repairing a temple of the Yellow Dragon in Siang-fu, but which in reality was a “meritorious work society,” teaching that after death its members would be sent back by Yama, the god of the infernal regions, to the earth, to convert mankind to righteousness. This community, the prisoner explained, counted already 123 male members, and had also a section of female members, 487 strong. A similar society had been founded in Ch’en-liu, a district near the capital of Honan, by the Buddhist priest Chung-i, spiritual father of Yuen-chi, a priest of the Yellow Dragon temple.

The necessity for a strict inquiry into this matter is the more imperative—the emperor declares—because very possibly this society makes common cause with the White Lotus sect, now in rebellion in Shantung. Ho Wei, the Governor of Honan, who is now with his troops at the frontiers, shall not yet proceed to persecute, but remember that “he who beats the bush frightens the serpents.” For the present the Lieutenant Governor of his province, Yung Chu, shall confine himself to making very secret investigations,
without fanning slumbering discontent into open rebellion. Then later on, when the right moment has come, they shall strike. But should these sectaries, knowing that in Shantung the sects are in rebellion, prepare to rise also—then let vigorous measures at once be taken to prevent this.

We learn nothing further regarding this heresy hunt. But we may conclude that it was a bloody and cruel one, from the fact that the exasperation of the emperor and his faithful satraps must have reached a climax on having experienced that the society of the White Lotus, of the Pure Water, of the White Yang, and others of the kind had proved themselves capable of surprising his cities, killing his Prefects, resisting his armies for a time, and cutting off the food supply of the Metropolis. All these bold feats were far from excluding the chance that, some time or other, the heretics might even storm the Metropolis and his Palace. A retrospect of past events necessarily enhanced the Imperial fears. For hardly two hundred years had passed since this same Shantung, even the same portion of it which is intersected by the Imperial Canal, rose in open rebellion under the lead of the same Lotus sect against the heresy-hunting house of Ming. Had not their leader proclaimed himself emperor? Had he not conquered numerous cities? And had not that rebellion to be quenched in streams of blood, its suppression requiring many dozen years of devastating warfare?

Therefore, no lenity towards the sects, no religious tolerance, but increase of persecutions, increase of cruelty! That this perverse polity must be like oil thrown into a smoldering fire; that it must incite the people, of which even the female part had stood in arms in Lin-ts’ing, to more exasperation, greater despair and stronger resistance, these plain facts remained beyond the comprehension of the Confucian brain. Fanaticism never is clear-sighted, but that of Confucianism appears to be totally blind. Kao Tsung would live
long enough to see yet more consequences of his disastrous polity. Once more under his reign a revolt would be attempted in that same portion of his realm. He would have to take the field against the persecuted Mohammedans in far Kansuh. He would have to mobilize his armies to quench rebellion in distant Formosa. Nay, he would live to see his successor for nearly eight successive years wage a destructive religious war in no less than five provinces in the west, and exterminate the people there by fire and the sword. The first period of Kao Tsung’s reign was one of persecution. The second necessarily became one of insurrection and warfare.