Zuo Zongtang

Zuo Zongtang(左宗棠,Xiang Chinese:[tso˧˩tsoŋ˧tan˩˧];Wade-Gilesspelling:Tso Tsung-t'ang; November 10, 1812 – September 5, 1885), sometimes referred to asGeneral Tso, was a Chinese statesman and army officer of the lateQing dynasty.
Born inXiangyin County,Hunan Province, Zuo sat for theimperial examinationin his youth but obtained only ajurendegree. He then spent his time studying agriculture, geography and military strategy. In 1851, he started his career in the Qing military by participating in the campaign against theTaiping Rebellion. In 1862, he was recommended byZeng Guofanto serve as theprovincial governorofZhejiang Province. During his term, he coordinated Qing forces to attack the Taiping rebels with support from British and French forces. For this success, he was promoted toViceroy of Min-Zhe. After capturingHangzhoufrom the Taiping rebels in 1864, he was enfeoffed as afirst class count. In 1866, as part of the Qing government'sSelf-Strengthening Movement, Zuo oversaw the construction of theFuzhou Arsenaland naval academy. That same year, he was reassigned to serve as theViceroy of Shaan-Gan, where he oversaw industrialization inGansu Province. In 1867, he was appointed as anImperial Commissionerin charge of military affairs in Gansu.
During his term asImperial Commissionerin Gansu, he participated in the suppression of theNian Rebellion. In 1875, he was appointed Imperial Commissioner again to supervise military action against theDungan Revolt. By the late 1870s, he had crushed the Dungan Revolt andrecaptured Xinjiang Provincefrom rebel forces. In 1875, theGuangxu Emperormade an extraordinary exception by awarding Zuo ajinshidegree– even though Zuo never achieved this in the imperial examination – and appointing him to theHanlin Academy. In 1878, in recognition of his achievements, Zuo was promoted from a first class count to asecond class marquis. He was reassigned to serve as theViceroy of Liangjiangin 1881 and appointed to theGrand Councilin 1884, before being made an Imperial Commissioner again to oversee naval affairs. He died in 1885 inFuzhou,Fujian Province, and was given theposthumous nameWenxiang.
While Zuo is best known outside China for his military exploits, he also made contributions to Chineseagricultural scienceand education. In particular, he promotedcottoncultivation to northwestern China as a replacement forcash cropopiumand established a large-scale modern press inShaanxiand Gansu provinces which publishedConfucian classicsand newer works on agricultural science.
The dishGeneral Tso's chickeninAmerican Chinese cuisinewas named after Zuo, though there is no recorded connection between him and the meal.
Zuo Zongtang'sfamily namewasZuoand hisgiven namewasZongtang. Hiscourtesy namewasJigao(季高;Jìgāo) orCun(存;Cún). Hisart name(or pseudonym) wasXiangshang Nongren(湘上農人;湘上农人;Xiāngshàng Nóngrén), which means "peasant fromXiang". He often signed off by the nameJinliang(今亮;Jīnliàng), which means "(Zhuge) Liangof today", since he liked to compare himself with Zhuge Liang.
Thetitles of nobilityhe held wereFirst Class Count Kejing(一等恪靖伯;Yīděng Kèjìng Bó) from 1864 to 1878, andSecond Class Marquis Kejing(二等恪靖侯;Èrděng Kèjìng Hóu) from 1878 to his death in 1885. Zuo'sposthumous name, granted by the Qing imperial court, wasWenxiang(文襄;Wénxiāng).
Zuo was nicknamed "Zuo Luozi" (左騾子;Zuǒ Luózǐ) ("Zuo themule") for his stubbornness.
Zuo was born in 1812 in a land-holding family inXiangyin County,Hunan Province.His family paid for him to attend a local private school starting from the age of five, where he mastered theConfucian classics. At the age of 20, he qualified to attend theImperial Academy.
Zuo's career got an inauspicious start when, in his youth, he failed theimperial examinationseven times (ca. 1822–1835). He decided to abandon his plans to become an official and returned to his home by theXiang Riverto farmsilkworms, read, and drink tea. It was during this period that he first directed his attention to the study of Western sciences, in the early days of theeastward spread of Western learning.
When theTaiping Rebellionbroke out in 1850, Zuo, then 38 years old, was hired as an advisor toZeng Guofan, the governor of Hunan. In 1856, he was formally offered a position in the provincial government of Hunan. In 1860, Zuo was given command of a force of 5,000 volunteers, theXiang Army(later known as "Chu Army"), and by September of that year, he drove the Taiping rebels out of Hunan andGuangxiprovinces, into coastalZhejiang Province. Zuo captured the city ofShaoxingand, from there, pushed south intoFujianandGuangdongprovinces, where the revolt had first begun. In 1863, Zuo was appointedProvincial Governorof Zhejiang and an Undersecretary of War.
In August 1864, Zuo, together with Zeng Guofan, dethroned theTaiping Heavenly Kingdom's teenage ruler,Hong Tianguifu, and brought an end to the rebellion. He was created "First Class Count Kejing" for his part in suppressing the rebellion. He, Zeng Guofan andLi Hongzhangwere calledZeng, Zuo, Li, the leaders in suppressing the rebellion.
In 1865, Zuo was appointedViceroy and Governor-Generalof Fujian and Zhejiang. As Commissioner of Naval Industries, Zuo founded China'sfirst modern shipyard and naval academyinFuzhouthe following year.
Zuo's successes continued. In 1867, he becameViceroyofShaanxiandGansuprovinces andImperial Commissionerof the armed forces in Shaanxi. In 1884, his fellow Xiang Army officer,Liu Jintang, was appointed as the first governor ofXinjiang Province. The Governor of Xinjiang was the subordinate to the Viceroy of Shaanxi and Gansu.
In these capacities, Zuo succeeded in putting down another uprising, theNian Rebellion, in 1868.
After this military success, Zuo marched west with his army of 120,000, winning many victories with advanced Western weapons in theDungan Revoltin northwestern China (Shaanxi,Ningxia, Gansu,Qinghaiand Xinjiang provinces) in the 1870s.
SeveralHui Muslimgenerals, such asMa Zhan'ao,Ma Anliang,Ma Qianling,Dong Fuxiang, andMa HaiyanfromHezhou, who had defected to Zuo's army, helped him crush the "Muslim rebels".Zuo rewarded them by relocating theHan Chinesefrom the suburbs of Hezhou to another place and allowing their troops to stay in the Hezhou suburbs as long as they did not live in the city itself.
In 1878, Zuo successfully suppressedYakub Beg's uprising and helped to negotiate an end to Russian occupation of the border city ofIli. He was vocal in the debate at the Qing imperial court over what to do with the Xinjiang situation, advocating for Xinjiang to become a province, in opposition toLi Hongzhang, who wanted to abandon what he called "useless Xinjiang" and concentrate on defending China's coastal areas. However, Zuo won the debate, Xinjiang was made a province, and many administrative functions were staffed by his Hunan officers.
Zuo was outspoken in calling for war against the Russian Empire, hoping to settle the matter by attacking Russian forces in Xinjiang with his Xiang Army. In 1878, when tension increased in Xinjiang, Zuo massed Qing forces toward the Russian-occupied Kuldja. TheCanadian Spectatorstated in 1878, "News fromTurkestansays the Chinese are concentrating against Kuldja, a post in Kashgar occupied by the Russians... It is reported that a Russian expedition from Yart Vernaic has been fired upon by Chinese troops and forced to return."The Russians were afraid of the Qing forces, thousands of whom were armed with modern weapons and trained by European officers. Because the Russian forces near the Qing Empire's border were under-manned and under-equipped, they agreed to negotiate.
Zuo's troops were armed with modern GermanDreyse needle riflesandKruppartillery as well as experimental weapons.
For his contributions to his nation and monarch, Zuo was appointed a Grand Secretary to theGrand Secretariatin 1874 and elevated to "Second Class Marquis Kejing" in 1878.
Zuo was appointed to theGrand Council, the cabinet of the Qing Empire at the time, in 1880. Uneasy with bureaucratic politics, Zuo asked to be relieved of his duties and was appointedViceroy of Liangjiangin 1881. In 1884, upon the outbreak of theSino-French War, Zuo received his fourth and last commission as commander-in-chief andImperial Commissionerof the military and Inspector-General overseeing coastal defences in Fujian Province.
Zuo was admired by many generals who came after him. During theRepublican era, theKuomintanggeneralBai Chongxiwanted to reconquerXinjiangfor theNationalist government, in Zuo's style, and expelled Russian influence from the area.Zuo was also referred to by Kuomintang generalMa Zhongying(a descendant of aSalarnoble) as one of his models, as Ma led theNational Revolutionary Army's36th Divisionto reconquer Xinjiang for the Nationalist government from the pro-Soviet governorJin Shurenduring theKumul Rebellion.
While Zuo is best known for his military acumen, he believed that the key to peace and stability lay in an educated, prosperous citizenry. He sometimes referred to himself by hisart name, "peasant fromXiang", and was keenly interested in agriculture. He advocated the scientific reform of commercial agriculture both as a way to strengthen China's economic self-sufficiency and also as a way to manage civilian populations by improving their standard of living and controlling the kinds of crops they grew. During the 12 years he spent in northwestern China, he undertook extensive agricultural research on different crops and methods. Comparing the benefits and indications of two ancient agricultural methods, the more established long field, crop rotation method (代田法) and the less common intensive, small-field method (區田法), Zuo believed that the latter method, cultivating small fields of densely-planted monocultures, was more suitable to the dry, extreme climate of the northwest region. To promote this method, he authored two pamphlets explaining the method which were then distributed freely to local farming communities. Zuo also recognised the threat of opium to the nation's stability and economic health and advocated replacing opium poppies with cotton as the major cash crop in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. He authorised the large scale distribution of cotton seeds and published pamphlets on its cultivation and processing. In 1878, he also oversaw the establishment of a large weaving factory in present-dayMulan County, Gansu Province, with the aim of creating a new textile industry in the region and providing socially-acceptable employment to women.
In addition to managing the peasantry by improving their economic circumstances, Zuo also believed that increasing access totraditional Chinese philosophywould help to pacify areas experiencing unrest and ultimately create a more contented and unified populace. To this end, Zuo set up a printing press in northwestern China which printedChinese classics, as well as agricultural pamphlets. When Zuo first arrived in the region, a decade of constant warfare had virtually stopped all publishing in the region. Zuo prioritised reestablishing the printing industry a priority and thousands of copies of the publications he authorised were distributed in Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi and Xinjiang. Printing appears to have stopped when Zuo returned to Beijing, but the endeavour is credited with inspiring later printing presses.
Zuo's great-grandparents were Zuo Fengsheng (左逢聖) and Madam Jiang (蔣氏). His grandparents were Zuo Renjin (左人錦) and Madam Yang (楊氏). His parents were Zuo Guanlan (左觀瀾; 1778–1830) and Madam Yu (余氏; 1775–1827).
Zuo had two elder brothers: Zuo Zongyu (左宗棫; 1799–1823) and Zuo Zongzhi (左宗植; 1804–1872).
In 1832, Zuo married Zhou Yiduan (周詒端; 1812–1870), a woman fromPaitou Township,Xiangtan Countyin Hunan Province. Zhou'scourtesy namewas "Junxin" (筠心). They had four daughters and four sons as follows:
The dishGeneral Tso's chickeninAmerican Chinese cuisinewas introduced in Taiwan and then in America in the 1970s, inspired by a dish originally prepared byPeng Chang-kuei, a Taiwanese chef specialising inHunan cuisine.Peng named the dish in honour of Zuo Zongtang.
One apocryphal story, for which no evidence is offered, credits the Chinese and Southeast Asian stuffed pancakeApam balikto the general. He is said to have invented it as a way to use local products and save his men from more expensive ingredients.