Chapter VIII: Administration of the Laws (3)

“We have reverently read in the imperial mandate, ‘There must indeed
be some persons among the people of extraordinary wisdom or bravery,
who can stir them up to loyalty and patriotism or unite them in
self-defence; some who can assist the government and army to recover
the cities, or else defend passes of importance against the robbers;
some who can attack and burn their vessels, or seize and bring the
heads of their doltish leaders; or else some with divine presence
and wisdom, who can disclose all their silly counsels and get to
themselves a name of surpassing merit and ability and receive the
highest rewards. We can confer,’ etc., etc. We, the people, having
received the imperial words, have united ourselves together as
troops, and practise the plan of joining hamlets and villages till
we have upward of a million of troops, whom we have provisioned
according to the scale of estimating the produce of respective farms;
and now we are fully ready and quite at ease as to the result. If
nothing calls us, then each one will return to his own occupation;
but if the summons come, joining our strength in force we will
incite each other to effort; our brave sons and brothers are all
animated to deeds of arms, and even our wives and daughters, finical
and delicate as jewels, have learned to discourse of arms. At first,
alas, those who guarded the passes were at ease and careless, and
the robbers came unbidden and undesired; but now [if they come], we
have only zealously to appoint each other to stations, and suppress
the rising of the waves to the stillest calm [_i.e._, to exterminate
them]. When the golden pool is fully restored to peace, and his
Majesty’s anxiety for the south relieved; when the leviathan has been
driven away, then will our anger, comparable to the broad ocean and
high heavens, be pacified.

“Ah! We here bind ourselves to vengeance, and express these our
sincere intentions in order to exhibit great principles; and also to
manifest Heaven’s retribution and rejoice men’s hearts, we now issue
this patriotic declaration. The high gods clearly behold: do not lose
your first resolution.”[261]

This spirited paper was subsequently answered by the party desirous of peace, but the anti-English feeling prevailed, and the committee appointed by the meeting set the English consulate on fire a few days after, to prevent it being occupied. There were many reasons at the time for this dislike; its further exhibition, however, ended with this attack, and has now pretty much died out with the rising of a new generation.

~POPULAR SECRET ASSOCIATIONS.~

The many secret associations existing among the people are mostly of a political character, but have creeds like religious sects, and differ slightly in their tenets and objects of worship. They are traceable to the system of clans, which giving the people at once the habit and spirit for associations, are easily made use of by clever men for their own purposes of opposition to government. Similar grievances, as local oppression, hatred of the Manchus, or hope of advantage, add to their numbers and strength, and were they founded on a full acquaintance with the grounds of a just resistance to despotism, they would soon overturn the government; but as out of an adder’s egg only a cockatrice can be hatched, so until the people are enlightened with regard to their just rights, no permanent melioration can be expected. It is against that leading feature in the Manchu policy, _isolation_, that these societies sin, which further prompts to systematic efforts to suppress them. The only objection the supreme government seems to have against the religion of the people is that it brings them together; they may be Buddhists, Rationalists, Jews, Mohammedans, or Christians, apparently, if they will worship in secret and apart. On the other hand, the people naturally connect some religious rites with their opposition and cabals in order to more securely bind their members together.

The name of the most powerful of these associations is mentioned in