Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/165

Rh social strain at Ch'engtu was doubly trying, especially because of the heat and his own indisposition.

In 1847 Tsêng took the final examination that brought him the promotion to cabinet rank. No other Hunanese had gained that place at the age of thirty-seven since the Ch'ing Dynasty came to power, and of late years only two others of any province had gone up from the doctorate to the cabinet within ten years. He was appointed a vice president in the Board of Rites. The ceremonies in connection with the death of the empress in 1849, followed by that of the emperor the following year, kept Tsêng, as a member of that board, well occupied. In the awards distributed as a result of these occurrences, Tsêng's family for three generations shared in the honors that were granted him.

From the Board of Rites he was transferred to one board after the other until he had served as a vice president in each of the six. In 1852, after the rebels had made their escape from Yungan and news of the disaster reached Peking, it fell to his lot to deliberate with others in the Board of Punishments as to what should be done with Wulant'ai and Saishanga, who were held responsible for the disaster to imperial arms. Feeling that military matters were of the gravest concern, Tsêng urged that the severest penalties be inflicted, but the emperor overruled the decision of the board. Perhaps the emperor was on safer ground at a time like this when good generals were so scarce, but the incident enables us to understand something of the stern spirit of the man who was