en.
War with the English added to the discontent, which grew greater until
1850, when the emperor died and his son Heen-fung ascended the throne.

This was going from bad to worse. The new emperor was still more selfish
and tyrannical than his father, and under the control of his craving for
sensual pleasures paid no heed to the popular cry for reform. The
discontent was now coming to a head. In the south broke out a revolt,
whose leaders proclaimed as emperor a youth said to be a descendant of
the Ming dynasty, who took the royal name of Teen-tih, or "Heavenly
Virtue." But he and his followers soon vanished before another and abler
aspirant to the throne, the first man with a genius for command who had
headed any of these rebel outbreaks.

The leader of this remarkable movement sprang from the lowest ranks of
the people, being the son of a peasant dwelling in a village near
Canton. Hung Sew-tseuen was a man of ardent imagination and religious
enthusiasm. Strange visions came to him, and held him captive for some
forty days, in which the visitors of his dreaming fancy urged him to
destroy the idols. Some years afterwards he read a Christian pamphlet
containing chapters from the Scriptures, and found it to correspond
closely with what he had seen and heard in his vision. Inspired by these
various influences, he felt himself divinely commissioned to restore his
country to the worship of the true God, and set out on a mission to
convert the people to his new faith.

Fung-Yun-san, one of his first converts, ardently joined him, and the
two traversed the country far and wide, preaching the religion of the
Christian God. Their success was great, their converts all giving up the
worship of Confucius and renouncing idolatry. Some of them were arrested
for destroying idols, among them Fung-Yun-san, but on the way to prison
he converted the soldiers of his guard, who set him free and followed
him as disciples. Many of the converts were seized with convulsions,
some professed to have the gift of healing, and the movement took on the
phase of strong religious ecstasy and enthusiasm.

It was in 1850 that this effort assumed a political character. A large
force of pirates had been driven by a British fleet from the sea, and on
shore they joined the bandits of the south, and became rebels against
the Manchu rule. Hung's converts were mostly among this people, who soon
took a strong stand against the misrule of the Tartars. The move