Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/148

128 after the "Heavenly Capital" was once secured. This circumstance strengthens the opinion that, with the eventual design of securing the whole empire, Chu early foresaw the necessity of making his conquest more than a fight. Therefore he trained the women and boys to take their part beside the adult male warriors in their pilgrimage to that distant goal.

B. Political and Social Institutions.

The first concern of the Taiping rebels had been to perfect the army which was to win for them their empire. From the earliest conflict with 'fiendish imps' in 1848 until they had settled down in Nanking early in 1853 there was no capital, and only the rudiments of civil government.

Yet as early as December, 1850, if we may credit the confession of Hung Ta-ch'üan, there were at least two boards, that of civil office and that of revenues, presided over by two wangs; also a judge advocate. During the following year, by successive steps, this government was formalised, its appointments made more permanent, its regulations more carefully considered. From a mere group of rebėls there was emerging the nucleus of an army and a state.

One of the first steps in the process was the designation of the Taiping-wang (T'ienwang) as the active head of the nation. On April 19 Yang Siu-ch'ing, claiming to be under the inspiration of the spirit of God the Father, formally presented Hung as their commander and master. "The heavenly Father addressed the multitude," the record runs, "saying: O my children! do you know

22 Boys as well as women were in these armies. Meadows, p. 164. Towards the end of the rebellion they were again used, probably owing to a scarcity of man power.

1 Confession of Hung Ta-ch'üan, chapter III, above.