Tseng Kuo-fan

Tseng Kuo-fan

(dzŭng gwô-fän), 1811–72, Chinese general and statesman of the Ch'ing dynasty. He organized (1853) the Hunan army, the first of the great regional armies that were raised to suppress the Taiping Rebellion. Appointed governor-general of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi provs. (1860), Tseng coordinated the military campaign that crushed the Taiping main forces and took the rebel capital at Nanjing in 1864. He advocated a policy of conciliation with the Western powers and military self-strengthening. Under his sponsorship the Jiangnan Arsenal was established at Shanghai in 1865. In addition to producing the first modern weapons and ships, the arsenal's translation bureau played a major role in introducing Western technology and thought to China. Tseng was appointed a grand secretary (1867) and was made (1868) governor-general of Zhili (Hebei) prov. With the death of Tseng and the involvement of Tso Tsung-t'angTso Tsung-t'ang
, 1812–85, Chinese general and statesman of the Ch'ing dynasty. He directed (1852–59) resistance to the Taiping Rebellion in his native Hunan and later organized (1860) a volunteer corps that fought the Taipings in Jiangxi and Anhui provs.
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 in suppressing the Muslim rebellion in NW China, Li Hung-changLi Hung-chang
, 1823–1901, Chinese statesman and general. His first success was as a commander of forces fighting the Taiping Rebellion. As viceroy of the capital province of Zhili (1870–95), he controlled Chinese foreign affairs for the Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi.
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 became the leader of the self-strengthening movement.

Bibliography

See study by W. J. Hail (1927, repr. 1964).

Tseng Kuo-Fan

 

Born Nov. 26, 1811, in Hsianghsiang District, Hunan Province; died Mar. 12, 1872, in Nanking. Chinese political and military figure.

At the government’s behest, Tseng Kuo-fan created the Hunan Army in late 1852. The army, which he commanded, was composed of local landowners and their feudal military bands. It soon became the most important strike force of the feudal reactionaries in their struggle against such popular uprisings as the Taiping Rebellion.

Tseng Kuo-fan was governor in Nanking from 1860 to 1865, again from 1866 to 1868, and a third time in 1871 and 1872. In 1865 he was designated imperial plenipotentiary for the suppression of the Nien Rebellion. Between 1868 and 1871, Tseng Kuofan served as governor of Chihli (now Hopeh), the province in which China’s capital was located.