Shangdi was never depicted, and the Taiping destroyed images with a thoroughness that included their own. The theological argument for using the classical name is the movement's single most original move: it claimed continuity with Chinese antiquity rather than rupture from it, and it let Hong tell villagers that the emperor's exclusive sacrifice to Shangdi was a usurpation of what belonged to everyone. Yang Xiuqing, Hong's military commander, complicated this considerably by falling into trances in which God the Father was held to speak directly through him, issuing orders that outranked Hong's own — including, on occasion, orders that Hong be beaten. That arrangement lasted until 1856, when Hong had Yang killed.