ABSTRACT
A smile spread over the face of thirty-six-year-old Hong Xiuquan when he heard the news of the birth of his son back in Jintian. At that same time, Lin Zexu was sixty-five years old and spending his waning years in Changsha, Hunan province. According to the rules of such poems, known as regulated verse, they had to be written in matching couplets. The match Lin chose for "autumn leaves" was "setting sun". The sun was sinking in the West, and so too did Lin Zexu see his own life. Charged with responsibility for China's defeat in the Opium War, the disciplinary action taken against him was consignment to Xinjiang. Many times Lin petitioned the court in Beijing to allow him to retire, but the Daoguang Emperor refused to permit it. The Lin party took the Xiang River and headed toward the big city of Changsha.
