Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/152

132 the control of the Ch'eng-hsiang or ministers of state who stood immediately below the nobility in rank.

It is not quite clear what the original intention was regarding the creation of so many wangs or kings, whether they were intended to be semi-independent feudal chieftains, like those of the Chow Dynasty whose territories surrounded the imperial demesne, or something else. If the T'ienwang did have in mind the pre-Confucian idea of government, as he did of army arrangements, we should say that he aimed at a highly decentralised nation. We have seen above that T'ienteh criticised this organisation, for he must have foreseen its inevitable consequences to the integrity of the state. If there was any such intention—indeed if there was any intention at all besides holding together six mutually jealous and ambitious men—it never came to anything, because, to the very end, the government remained essentially military.

Of the five kings two, and they the most gifted, fell on the way to Nanking. Their loss was irreparable, because they were apparently the only ones who were able in any measure to check the pretensions of Yang. The latter, now promoted to be sole executive, quickly became so cruel and arrogant that he earned the implacable hatred of the Northern and Assistant kings. By the reproofs he administered to Hung himself in God's name, by his forcing a recognition of his claim to be the Holy Ghost, third in the Trinity, as well as by other usurpations, he at last