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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the career of one of the most notable of Chinese state officials in the mid-nineteenth century, General Zuo Zongtang (1812–1885) at a time when the Qing Empire was beset by enemies on all sides along with the massive Taiping Rebellion (1851–65). The paper explores how Zuo created a coherent and flexible counter-insurgency doctrine that underpinned his suppression of the Taipings, the Nian, Muslim rebels of the northwest and the defeat of a massive Sufi revolt in Central Asia. The paper also shows how Zuo helped convince the Russians to return territory they occupied in Central Asia, thereby preserving the territorial integrity of the Qing Empire in the region.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. While there are dozens of biographies of Zuo in Chinese, there are far fewer in English, as discussed below. For a brief career overview of Zuo in English, see Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period, 949–54. For his official biography in Chinese, see Zhao, et al., comps., Qing shigaopp, 12023–12035. Hereafter QSG. For his traditional chronological biography, see Zhengjun, “Zuo Wenxiang gong nianpu [Chronological Biography of Zuo Zongtang],” 539–757, hereafter ZWN. The best recent modern Chinese biography is Dongliang, Zuo Zongtang.
2. For example, Zuo’s own collected works encompass fifteen weighty volumes in their modern edition. See Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang quanji [Complete Works of Zuo Zongtang]. Hereafter ZZQJ.
3. Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang, There are other, more specialized studies, most notably those of Lanny Fields and Immanuel Hsu, cited below.
4. See QSG, 12,023, and Fields, “Tso Tsung-t’ang (1812–1885),” 5–9.
5. See Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 5–7; and Fields, Campaigns, 53–56.
6. Fields, Tso Tsung-t’ang and the Muslims, 3–4.
7. ECQP, 949, and Yang, 10–11.
8. For more on the Opium War and its background, see Wakeman, “The Canton Trade and the Opium War,” 163–212. Hereafter CHC 10. Also see Fay, The Opium War, 1840–1842.
9. Chen, Tso Tsung-t’ang, 1–2.
10. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 15–16, and ZZQJ, 10, 14–16.
11. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 18–19.
12. There are myriad accounts of the Taiping Rebellion in English and Chinese. Useful general narratives include Michael with Chang, The Taiping Rebellion: A History with Documents; and Kuhn, “The Taiping Rebellion,” in CHC 10, 264–317. For biographies of the founder, Hong Xiuquan, who believed himself to be Jesus’ younger brother, see Spence, God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan and ECQP, 226–32.
13. QSG, 12,023.
14. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 21.
15. Qi was famous for a pair of military manuals he published in the late Ming that emphasized drill, training, proper leadership and coordination of small formations. He was credited with eradicating the so-called Japanese pirate (wokou) threat in southeast China, and for inventing new techniques for fighting the Mongols, using war wagons and firearms. Zuo, as will be seen below, employed similar tactics himself in the northwest. For studies of Qi, see his biography in Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 220–24; Zhongyi, Qi Jiguang Zhuan. For Qi’s influence on strategists in the Taiping Rebellion, see Sim and Liu, “Zeng Guofan’s Applications of Qi Jiguang’s Doctrines in Crushing the Taiping Uprising,” 93–104; and CHC 10, 286–87.
16. See note 13 above.
17. Chen, Tso Tsung-t’ang:6–7; and Fields, “Campaigns,” 73.
18. See Chen, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Pioneer Promoter of the Modern Dockyard, 8–12.
19. Zeng Guofan was also a native of Hunan and one of the ablest of the late Qing officials and military commanders. Along with Zuo he is credited with pioneering the use of smaller, independently raised militia units to quell the massive late Qing uprisings. Many of his friends, relatives, and protégés held prominent positions in the Qing government or military. Personally, he and Zuo were not particularly friendly, a dislike no doubt exacerbated by their respective egos. For a brief biography of Zeng, see ECQP, 842–47.
20. ZNP 3, 29, and Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 135–36.
21. ZNP 2, 34.
22. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 27.
23. Ibid., 28–29.
24. Ibid., 29.
25. See the table in ibid., 36.
26. See Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 33–34, on this incident.
27. Chu was a designation for the region encompassing northern Hunan, southern Henan, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces, derived from an ancient state that had existed there.
28. QSG, 12,024.
29. Ibid., 12,025.
30. Ibid., 12,025; and CHC 10, 454.
31. See Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 139–41.
32. Incidentally, these mercenaries were mostly French. Ibid, 153.
33. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 45.
34. QSG, 12,026.
35. Ibid, 12,026. The full record of Zuo’s exploits in Zhejiang can be found in Qin and Zhongying, Ping Zhe jilue [Record of the Pacification of Zhejiang].
36. Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 177–78.
37. On these battles, see QSG, 12,026–27.
38. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 53–54.
39. ZNP 3, 40, and Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 184.
40. For a translation of one of Zuo’s proposals for the naval yard, see Teng and Fairbank, China’s Response to the West, 79–83.
41. For a biography of Shen, see ECQP, 527–29.
42. Again, there are many detailed sources and studies pertaining to the Nian. English, see Teng, The Nien Army and their Guerrilla Warfare; and Chiang, The Nien Rebellion. In Chinese, see Xueqin, comp., Qin ding jiaoping Nian (fei) fanglue[Campaign History of the Pacification of the Nian Bandits]; and Chongqi, ed., Nian jun ziliao bieji[Historical Materials on the Nian Army]. For a review of Chinese research on the Nian, see Perry, ed., Chinese Perspectives on the Nien Rebellion. The rise of the Nian has been attributed to a combination of geographic conditions, the impact of high rents and other rebellions upon the region, natural disasters and the emergence of secret societies and salt smuggling operations. See Perry, Chinese Perspectives, 10–12, and CHC 10, 312–15.
43. QSG, 12,027.
44. Ibid.
45. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 78–79.
46. QSG, 12,028.
47. See Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 200–202.
48. Ibid., 199–200.
49. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 79; and ZZQJ 11, 7–8.
50. ZZQJ 11, 13–14.
51. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 79.
52. Ibid., 80–81.
53. CHC 10, 312.
54. See Liu, ‘The Ch’ing Restoration,’ in CHC 10, 460. On the late Ming, early Qing situation see Swope, On the Trail of the Yellow Tiger.
55. CHC 10, 461–63.
56. Perry, Chinese Perspectives on the Nien Rebellion, 33.
57. ZZQJ, 11, 33.
58. Yet another protégé of Zeng Guofan. Li Hongzhang, was one of the preeminent late Qing officials and diplomats. He would become a great rival of Zuo, in part because of their differing opinions on how to deal with the threats of the Western imperialists and how to prioritize military spending. For a biography of Li, see ECQP, 317–24.
59. See note 49 above.
60. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 81–82.
61. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 83; and QSG, 12,028.
62. QSG, 12,029.
63. ZZQJ 11, 99.
64. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 86.
65. Ibid., 87.
66. The Dowager Empresses were initially the regents for the boy Emperor Tongzhi, but managed affairs for pretty much his entire short reign. Cixi came to be the most powerful, and probably the most reviled, figure in the empire. For her biography, see ECQP, 698–704. For a recent revisionist and controversial take on her life and reign, see Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi.
67. ZNP, 4, 48–49.
68. Ibid., 49–50; and Bales, 211. At this time 3.3 taels were equivalent to about 1 pound sterling or $4.86 in US dollars.
69. Fields, “Campaigns,” 103–104.
70. Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 62.
71. Elleman, Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795–1989, 65.
72. Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 65. Also see Kim, Holy War in China, 159–60 on the various Sufi sects operating in the region.
73. Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 67–69.
74. Ibid., 70.
75. For a much more thorough discussion of the background to these uprisings and conditions on the steppe, see Kim, Holy War in China, 1–72. On the Qing economic penetration of Central Asia and government policies there, see Millward, Beyond the Pass, 1759–1864.
76. On corrupt Qing governance in Central Asia, see Han, Zuo Wenxiang gong zai xibei, 24–25. Hereafter ZWZX.
77. ZWZX, 25.
78. Ibid., 26.
79. On the background in northwest China, also see ZWZX, 21–24.
80. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 89.
81. Ibid., 89.
82. See Atwill, The Chinese Sultanate, 84–115.
83. These taxes had first been set up in the wake of the Qing’s ‘unequal treaties’ with the Western powers and were designed to soften the blow of reparations by providing new revenue streams for the cash-strapped state at the local level. Of course, the Western powers pressured the Qing to keep import taxes as low as possible and China had effectively lost tariff autonomy so the lijin became a regular feature of the tax system. For one of Zuo’s requests, see ZZQJ 4, 26–28.
84. Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 80–81.
85. See Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 90, for details of postings and duty assignments.
86. Bales, 234.
87. For one of Zuo’s victory reports, see ZZQJ 4, 11–14.
88. QSG, 12,029.
89. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 91.
90. QSG, 12,029.
91. ZZQJ 11, 149–50.
92. QSG, 12,029. It is unclear whether the reference to ravaging Han women was a charge frequently leveled at Muslims. It generally appears in sources pertaining to Han Chinese rebels as well, indicating the general lack of propriety of such groups.
93. This was apparently engineered by Ma Hualong through his official contacts, possibly even Mutushan. See Bales, 241–42.
94. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 93.
95. For Zuo’s criticism of Mutushan’s policy of suasion, see ZZQJ 4, 191–92.
96. ZZQJ 4, 179–84.
97. QSG, 12,030; Yang, 94; and ECQP, 951.
98. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 96. Some sources put the execution date two weeks earlier. See ECQP, 951.
99. Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 262–65.
100. ZNP 5, 34–35.
101. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 96.
102. Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China, 273–75.
103. See Chen, Tso Tsung-t’ang: Pioneer Promoter of the Modern Dockyard, 52–56.
104. QSG, 12,030. The Ili Crisis is treated at length in Hsu, The Ili Crisis.
105. QSG, 12,030–31.
106. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 100.
107. Ibid; and Bales, 290–92.
108. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 100.
109. ZZQJ, 12, 419.
110. Fields, “Campaigns,” 126. Another version of this quote has Zuo saying, ‘The only distinction is between innocent and rebellious. There is none between Han and Muslims’. See Liu and Smith, “The Military Challenge,” 228. Hereafter CHC 11.
111. See ZZQJ 5, 282; Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 84–85; and Yang, 102–104.
112. Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 87.
113. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 103.
114. Ibid., 104.
115. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 105–106.
116. On the backdrop to the war and the emergence of Yakub Beg, see Kim, Holy War in China, 37–97.
117. QSG, 12, 031.
118. Ibid., 12,031.
119. On Zuo’s memorial pleading his case, see QSG, 12,032; and Fields, Tso and the Muslims, 82.
120. A new Qing ruler, Guangxu, nephew of Cixi, had ascended the throne in 1875.
121. Elleman, Modern Chinese Warfare, 77; and CHC 11, 238–39.
122. ZZQJ 6, 265–70.
123. Elleman, Modern Chinese Warfare, 76–78. On sizes and location of grain stores, see Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 127.
124. ZZQJ, 12, 16–17.
125. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 131.
126. ZZQJ 12, 117–18.
127. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 167. Bai had previously skirmished with the Chinese further south, receiving limited aid from Yakub Beg.
128. Hodong Kim argues that Yakub Beg had been convinced, probably by the British, that the Qing were amenable to a diplomatic solution so he supposedly instructed his men not to fight vigorously. There was also a rumor circulating that Yakub Beg would be spared if he sent the Chinese outlaws Bai Yanhu and Yu Xiaohu to the Qing. See Kim, 169–72.
129. Yang, Zuo Zongtang, 137.
130. Kim, Holy War in China, 167.
131. QSG, 12,032.
132. See QSG, 12, 032, and Kim, Holy War in China, 169–70, who argues for the stroke explanation.
133. Chu, The Moslem Rebellion in Northwest China, vii.
134. Hou, “Tongzhi Huimin qiyi fou xibei diqu renkou qianyi ji yingxiang,” 68–72.
135. See Elleman, 57–58.
136. Elleman, 58.
137. Bales, Tso Tsung-t’ang, 5.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kenneth M. Swope
Kenneth M. Swope is serving as Dr. Leo A. Shifrin Chair of Military & Naval History at the United States Naval Academy for the 2019-20 academic year. He is also Professor of History and Senior Fellow of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published numerous books and articles on late imperial Chinese military history, including On the Trail of the Yellow Tiger: War, Trauma, and Social Dislocation in Southwest China during the Ming-Qing Transition (Nebraska, 2018). This article is derived from his book project, Struggle for Empire in Nineteenth-Century China: The True Story of General Zuo Zongtang, forthcoming from the Naval Institute Press.