Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/149

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INSURGENT ORGANISATION

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your heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother? To which they all replied, We know our heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother. The heavenly Father then said, Do you know your Lord, and truly? To which they all replied, We know our Lord right well. The heavenly Father said, I have sent your Lord down into the world to become the celestial King; you must not dare to act disorderly, nor to be disrespectful. If you do not regard your Lord and King every one of you will be involved in difficulty."^[1]

Prior to this Yang had served as generalissimo; from this date until after the siege of Changsha the decrees were issued by Hung, who was both co-sovereign and active head of the revolution, T'ienteh being the emperor and remaining in the background.^[2] This arrangement was in effect till the end of the siege at Changsha, after which all the important proclamations were issued by Yang, the Eastern king, or jointly by him and Hsiao, the Western king, though the latter was actually deceased.^[3]

↑ "Book of Celestial Decrees and Declarations of the Imperial Will," p. 1.
↑ I have before me one proclamation, presumably dated just before the capture of Changsha, in the second year of T'ienteh, commencing "Hung, Captain-General of the army, having entire superintendence of military affairs, and aiding in the advancement of the T'haeping or Great Pacificating Dynasty," etc. (Translated by W. H. M. in Peking Gazettes for 1853-1856.) I have already alluded to the later tendency to suppress the truth about certain chiefs, such as T'ienteh, and the death of Fêng Yun-shan and Hsiao Chao-kwei. My inference is that Hung, the celestial King, was at first called the Taiping-wang and was either subordinate to T'ienteh, or at best equal. But at Yungan the dynasty was evidently set up in the name of T'ienteh, who had the ambition later to set up the Later Ming Dynasty. (See the proclamation of Kwoh of Hupeh, p. 4 of Peking Gazettes for 1853.)
↑ One such proclamation is translated by Medhurst, bearing date March 3, 1853, and is perhaps the first. It subsequently appeared as the first in the books of proclamations brought down by the Hermes in May, 1853. At the beginning of June a third copy was obtained, omitting reference to the Triads. See Pamphlets issued by the Chinese Insurgents, translated by W. H. Medhurst, Sr., Shanghai, 1853, pp. 33, 34. It is significant that with this

[1] "Book of Celestial Decrees and Declarations of the Imperial Will," p. 1.

[2] I have before me one proclamation, presumably dated just before the capture of Changsha, in the second year of T'ienteh, commencing "Hung, Captain-General of the army, having entire superintendence of military affairs, and aiding in the advancement of the T'haeping or Great Pacificating Dynasty," etc. (Translated by W. H. M. in Peking Gazettes for 1853-1856.) I have already alluded to the later tendency to suppress the truth about certain chiefs, such as T'ienteh, and the death of Fêng Yun-shan and Hsiao Chao-kwei. My inference is that Hung, the celestial King, was at first called the Taiping-wang and was either subordinate to T'ienteh, or at best equal. But at Yungan the dynasty was evidently set up in the name of T'ienteh, who had the ambition later to set up the Later Ming Dynasty. (See the proclamation of Kwoh of Hupeh, p. 4 of Peking Gazettes for 1853.)

[p129-4-3] One such proclamation is translated by Medhurst, bearing date March 3, 1853, and is perhaps the first. It subsequently appeared as the first in the books of proclamations brought down by the Hermes in May, 1853. At the beginning of June a third copy was obtained, omitting reference to the Triads. See Pamphlets issued by the Chinese Insurgents, translated by W. H. Medhurst, Sr., Shanghai, 1853, pp. 33, 34. It is significant that with this

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