there was a series of struggles going on whereby Yang and Hsiao were pitted against Chu and Wei Chang-hui, King of the North, possibly against Fêng as well. By some means Yang and Hsiao, in that group of religious fanatics, managed to persuade them that God and Jesus had actually descended and given them the leadership. We shall later find that Yang even tried to take away the power of Hung after they were safely settled in Nanking, and that he and Wei became mortal enemies. Add to this the fact that Wei attempted the rescue of Hung Ta-ch'üan at the time of escape from Yungan, while Hsiao disobeyed him, and we have some fair grounds for assuming the division of kings in that way. Hung, when summoned to be the coördinate leader of the movement, rejected some of the revelations but accepted those of Yang and Hsiao, thus probably checking Chu, who had to bide his time.
The struggle of 1848 might thus be regarded as a preliminary struggle for the control of the movement in which the natural leaders were set aside by Yang and Hsiao, with the blessing later of Hung.[1] But T'ienteh was too powerful to be set aside, and as the unity of the rank and file had to be preserved compromise was effected. Both men were admitted to the highest place, one as T'ienteh, whose title (and even the temporary dating of documents by that title) implied that he was the emperor. That would seem to place him above the T'ienwang, who, as religious head of the state, would be a sort of Taiping pope. But the actual control of the movement was in the hands of the Eastern and Western kings with their divine possessions. T'ienteh could do
- ↑ The Taiping T'ien-kuo Yeh Shi, in listing the "kings," places the Eastern and Western kings in the first grade, those of North and South in the second grade, and the Assistant king and T'ienteh in the third grade.
