Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/118

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The poem goes on from this point to relate how the king of Hades envied him and displayed much malignity, but God instructed His son (Hung) how to subdue him and his "imps," which he eventually did, ascending again to heaven to receive God's further commission to return to the world and carry out his mission, promising to be with him and superintend everything.

We cannot be certain who were the adversaries he met in this first battle. The poem records what appears to be something different from the mere hostile or cynical attitude of members of the family or village, and may possibly refer to some earlier disturbances with rivals, such