NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 127
style befitting relatives of one of the Taiping Kings. To celebrate his second marriage, Dr. Legge and his new wife entertained their Chinese friends and associates at a feast of twelve tables with some thirty courses. Mrs. Legge remarks in a letter dated 24 August, 1860, that “Sy-poe seemed very desirous I should honour his table
We had a letter from the Rebel King, he congratulates Dr. Legge on his marriage." Sy-poe is not mentioned again by the missionaries, but in 1871, Dr. Legge states that his son came to the Mission house requesting a recommendation for the position of a watchman. Legge states, "He is an honest-looking lad — but alas, that the glory of the Taipings should thus have passed away”
Reports in the Archives of the Basel Missionary Society mention Fung Khui-syu, born in 1848, "son of a Taiping King". He must be Hung K'uei-yüan alias K'uei-hsiu, the son of Hung Jen-kan." He was employed by the Society as a teacher; first on the mainland, but then, because of the danger to him and his family created by his former association with the rebellion, he was removed to Hong Kong to teach in the mission's Girl's School at Sai Ying Poon.
In 1873 a marriage was arranged by Mrs. Lechler between Fung Khui-syu, then teaching at Tshong-hang-kang in Hsin-an district, and one of the older girls in the Society's boarding school at Hong Kong. The bride Tsen A-lin, alias En-min was an orphan. As a young girl she had been sold by her mother in Shanghai and had been brought to Hong Kong to work in a brothel; but she had been found wandering in the streets by a member of the Basel Society congregation and was brought to the Mission House. In 1865, at the age of twelve, she was enrolled as a student, and was baptized in 1870, when she received the name Lin, meaning compassion, in place of Tchuy-khuyk (Ch'iu-chü), meaning autumn chrysanthemum.
In 1878 a large part of the congregation of the Basel Mission Church at Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, emigrated to Demerara, British Guiana. Fung Khui-syu went with them. The 1885 Yearly Report of the Rev. Lechler states:
In Georgetown is a Chinese Church and one of our emigrants has been placed there as Pastor. He is the relative of the former rebel king Fung Syu-tshen, and himself, at the time of the Government of Taipings in Nanking, was made king. He found his way to Hong Kong and was received at our table. I sent him
NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 127
style befitting relatives of one of the Taiping Kings. To celebrate his second marriage, Dr. Legge and his new wife entertained their Chinese friends and associates at a feast of twelve tables with some thirty courses. Mrs. Legge remarks in a letter dated 24 August, 1860, that “Sy-poe seemed very desirous I should honour his table
We had a letter from the Rebel King, he congratulates Dr. Legge on his marriage." Sy-poe is not mentioned again by the missionaries, but in 1871, Dr. Legge states that his son came to the Mission house requesting a recommendation for the position of a watchman. Legge states, "He is an honest-looking lad — but alas, that the glory of the Taiping's should thus have passed away” 10
Reports in the Archives of the Basel Missionary Society mention Fung Khui-syu, born in 1848, "son of a Taiping King". He must be Hung K'uci-yüan alias K'uei-hsiu, the son of Hung Jen-kan." He was employed by the Society as a teacher; first on the mainland, but then, because of the danger to him and his family created by his former association with the rebellion, he was removed to Hong Kong to teach in the mission's Girl's School at Sai Ying Poon.12 In 1873 a marriage was arranged by Mrs. Lechler between Fung Khui-syu, then teaching at Tshong-hang-kang # in Hsin- an district, and one of the older girls in the Society's boarding school at Hong Kong. The bride Tsen A-lin, alias En-min was an orphan. As a young girl she had been sold by her mother in Shanghai and had been brought to Hong Kong to work in a brothel; but she had been found wandering in the streets by a member of the Basel Society congregation and was brought to the Mission House. In 1865, at the age of twelve, she was enrolled as a student, and was baptized in 1870, when she received the name Lin, meaning compassion, in place of Tchuy-khuyk (Ch'iu-chü✯✯), meaning autumn chrysanthemum.13
In 1878 a large part of the congregation of the Basel Mission Church at Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, emigrated to Demerara, British Guiana. Fung Khui-syu went with them. The 1885 Yearly Report of the Rev. Lechler states:
In Georgetown is a Chinese Church and one of our emigrants has been placed there as Pastor. He is the relative of the former rebel king Fung Syu-tshen, and himself, at the time of the Government of Taipings in Nanking, was made king. He found his way to Hong Kong and was received at our table. I sent him
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