Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/85

Rh ment which fell into foreign hands; and we have a strong presumption that this T'ienteh was actually aiming to restore the Ming throne, but that in order to achieve this end the religious element in his following, that is, the God-worshippers, had to be appeased by concessions which gave Hung Siu-ch'üan a place of equality.

The Triads also had as their aim the restoration of the Mings, and their support would go to Chu rather than Hung. When the long-sighted Chu in 1848 failed to get or keep the control of the God-worshippers he could not fight against them, and he could not appeal to them to follow a Ming prince either, so he had to compromise. But as he still remained in the group of conspirators the Triads would hold themselves ready to join the God-worshippers when Chu gave the sign, which he probably did in 1850, when the great uprising was imminent.

As to their leaving at once, which Hung Jin suggests, I think the evidence in Yang's proclamation is a sufficient refutation. Nor is his quotation of Hung regarding the Triads to the point, when Hung claims that he does not aim at the restoration of the Mings, and asserts that he hates the Triads and what they stand for. On the contrary, it tends to prove that the bond between Humg and this revolutionary society was so impossible that they would not submit to Hung at all except for the connection of Chu with the movement.

The moment, therefore, that Chu was captured and the delivery from Tungan threw the whole power into the hands of the fanatical party, these Triads also began to abandon the new leaders, only to meet with the re-