26 Facts About Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan, Marquis Yiyong, birth name Zeng Zicheng, courtesy name Bohan, was a Chinese statesman and military general of the late Qing dynasty.

Zeng Guofan is best known for raising and organizing the Xiang Army to aid the Qing military in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion and restoring the stability of the Qing Empire.

Zeng Guofan was known for his strategic perception, administrative skill and noble personality on Confucian practice, but for his ruthlessness in repressing rebellions.

Zeng Guofan was a descendant of the philosopher Zengzi, a student of Confucius.

Zeng Guofan studied in Yuelu Academy in Changsha Prefecture, where he passed the prefectural examination in 1833, only a year after his father, Zeng Linshu.

Zeng Guofan passed the provincial examination a year later, and by 1838, at age 27, he had passed the imperial examination, a prestigious achievement in China.

Zeng Guofan had earned the jinshi degree, the highest level in the civil service examinations, which led to his appointment to the Hanlin Academy, a body of outstanding Chinese literary scholars who performed literary tasks for the imperial court.

Zeng Guofan served in Beijing for more than 13 years, and remained devoted to the interpretation of the Confucian classics.

Zeng Guofan moved relatively quickly up the ranks with the aid of his teacher, Mujangga; within five years, he had become a second-grade official.

In 1843, Zeng Guofan was appointed as the chief literary examiner in Sichuan Province.

The Xiang Army under Zeng Guofan contained some integrated Hangzhou drill groups.

In 1853, other triumphs led to Zeng Guofan being made a baturu, and to his being decorated with a yellow riding-jacket.

The tide quickly turned on May 1,1854, Zeng Guofan defeated the Taiping at Xiangtan and in July at Yuezhou.

Zeng Guofan succeeded in clearing the country round Poyang Lake, and subsequently in ridding Jiangsu Province of the rebels.

Zeng Guofan's father died in 1857, and after a brief mourning he was ordered to take supreme command in Zhejiang Province, and to cooperate with the governor of Fujian Province in defence.

Subsequently, the rebels were driven westwards, and Zeng Guofan would have started in pursuit had he not been called on to clear Anhui Province of rebel forces.

Success did not always attend him on this campaign, and by imperial order he was relieved of his command by Li Hongzhang, who in the same way succeeded him as the Viceroy of Zhili, where, after the Tianjin Massacre, Zeng Guofan failed to carry out the wishes of the imperial court.

Zeng Guofan's papers addressed to the throne and his literary disquisitions are held in high esteem by Chinese scholars, who treasure the edition of his collected works in 156 books, which was edited by Li Hongzhang in 1876, as a memorial of a great and incorruptible statesman.

Zeng Guofan enjoyed reading and held a special interest in the Twenty-Four Histories and other Chinese classics.

Zeng Guofan called Hakka females "big foot hillbilly witches" during the Taiping Rebellion after encountering them for the first time.

Unlike his contemporaries, who had multiple wives or kept concubines, Zeng Guofan was officially married only once, to a woman of the Ouyang family when he was in his late teens.

Zeng Guofan had three sons and five daughters with her, and two of his eldest children died young.

Zeng Guofan's ninth brother, Zeng Guofan Guoquan, was an ambitious general in the Xiang Army.

Zeng Guofan was later appointed Viceroy of Liangjiang in 1884.

Zeng Guofan's great-granddaughter, Zeng Guofan Baosun, was a feminist, historian, and Christian educator.

Since the Cultural Revolution, criticism of Zeng Guofan gradually began to disappear.