of adventure and hardship. "In former years they were wont to fight bravely," says Lindley,[1] "and could ably discharge the duties of officers, being however formed into a separate camp and only joining the men in religious observances." Earlier Taiping documents confirm this. In the army regulations for the settled camps the fifth rule says: "Observe the distinction between the camp of the males and that of the females; let no men and women give or take from each others' hands." In the fifth regulation for armies on the march we find another similar reference to "officers or soldiers, male or female," and several passages occur in the same language.[2] A proclamation issued just before the breaking out from Yungan, dated April 5, 1852, enjoins on both male and female officers throughout the host to grasp the sword "with joy and exultation, firmness and patience, courage and ardor, valiantly to fight against the imps."[3]
From the evidence of such passages we are forced to believe that women were trained to bear arms in this rebellion. In the formative days of the movement we are told of "two female rebel chiefs of great valor, named Kew-urh and Szu-san," who came to join Hung's movement. They were stationed with their four thousand warriors at some distance from the others.[4] When Nanking was once gained, the females apparently ended their career as active warriors in the field and were placed in
- ↑ Lindley, I, 303.
- ↑ Among these are the T'ienwang's proclamation of March 2, 1852, at Yungan, regarding the seventh commandment. In an earlier proclamation, dated in January, 1851, separation is required between ranks of males and females.
- ↑ In all Taiping proclamations to the imperialists, "Imps" refer to worshippers of demons.
- ↑ Hamberg, p. 54. The context does not make it quite clear whether the followers of these women were men or women. The constant allusion to female warriors would lend color to the view that they were a regular Amazon corps.
