Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/368

Rh in the power of the ancestors and in the vital need of a happy choice for the ancestral graves, but the foregoing extracts will show what a powerful effect these moves had on the conduct even of a man so cautious about many superstitious practices in connection with Chinese life. To live without making provision for the happiness of the departed was beyond the power of man.

There were other types of superstitious belief in which Tsêng also shared, though in theory his attitude towards them was one of scepticism. In the year 1838 he was travelling on a small stream known as Fanchen Ho, when a sudden storm placed him in considerable peril. In his danger he vowed a play to the goddess of mercy, Kwang-yin, if he should be rescued. As late as 1851 the terror of that wild day so affected him that he wrote home telling his family that none of them must henceforth travel on that river, and should warn their descendants to keep away from it. Omens and signs revealing the will of Heaven are also mentioned in letters as true. Early in 1864 he speaks of peculiarly dark, ashy-looking clouds hanging over the city of Nanking, and wonders if it does not indicate that Heaven is about to bring the Taiping rebellion to an end. In 1858, when he was in control of military operations in Chekiang as well as elsewhere and a mandate came appointing his brother to a post in Chekiang, he wrote home saying that when their late father had been on a pilgrimage to Nanyueh he had made a prophecy saying: "Two pearls are together in your hand, their brilliance shall illumine Hangchow," and he had told Kuo-fan that among his sons two would be officials in Chekiang. Their going would fulfill what was revealed half a century before.

On another occasion, lamenting the death of his brother