T'ienwang, in one of the rare moments when he could be aroused to consider public affairs, issued a lengthy proclamation, recounting the usurpations of the Manchus and picturing the glorious kingdom about to be consummated if only they would stand firm. He also named seven new wangs, apparently just constituted. These were (1) the Ying-wang (heroic king), Ch'eng Yu-ch'en, a skillful general who had risen through ability; (2) the Yu-wang (the ready king), Hu I-kwang; (3) the Tsan-wang (the assisting king), Mêng Teh-ên; (4) the Fu-wang (the protecting king), Yang Fu-ch'ing; (5) the Chung-wang (faithful, or loyal, king), Li Siu-ch'eng; (6) the Shi-wang (the attendant king), Li Shi-sien; (7) the Chang-wang (the polished king), Lin Shao-chang.[1]
All these changes were calculated to give greater hope of Taiping success, but one source of difficulty still remained — the religious fanaticism of the T'ienwang which prevented his taking any clear-headed view of affairs or listening to good advice, leading him to rely instead on his religious formulas and his supposed divine power.[2]
On April 20, 1858, the theater of war was enlarged when Shi Ta-k'ai entered the province of Chekiang with an army of more than seventy thousand men. He captured a number of district cities near the Kiangsi border.[3] This threw that province into the utmost agitation. As something of an offset to this disaster the city of Kiukiang, which had remained in the hands of the enemy for three years, fell on May 19 before the combined as-
- ↑ Hatsuzoku Ran Shi, pp. 48-50. There only the surnames are given, and the full name has been supplied in every case from other sources. The Chungwang, Autobiography, gives 1859 as the time of these changes, but the dated document seems more trustworthy.
- ↑ Chungwang, Autobiography, pp. 62 ff.
- ↑ Nienp'u, V, 11b. Dispatches, X, 15b, 16a, speaking of later operations, placed the number in the Yiwang's army at 70,000 to 80,000 men. Later dispatches and other references speak of as many as 200,000.
