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列傳一百九十二
Biographies 192
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Zeng Guofan, whose original name was Zicheng and whose courtesy name was Disheng, came from Xiangxiang in Hunan. His family had farmed for generations. His grandfather Yuping was the first in the family to turn toward village learning. His father Linshu held the rank of district-school student and was known throughout the region for his filial devotion.
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Guofan received his jinshi degree in the eighteenth year of Daoguang (1838). In the twenty-third year of the reign (1843), while serving as an Investigating Editor in the Hanlin Academy, he presided over the Sichuan provincial examinations. He was later made Reader-in-Waiting and rose in succession to Academician of the Grand Secretariat and Vice Minister of Rites, while concurrently overseeing the Ministry of War. Tang Jian, Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, was then lecturing in the capital, and Guofan—along with Woren, Wu Tingdong, and He Guizhen—reverently attended him and pursued the Neo-Confucian study of moral principle. He also kept company with Mei Cengliang, Shao Yichen, Liu Chuanying, and others in literary composition and evidential scholarship, while keeping a keen eye on men of talent across the empire.
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咸豐初，廣西兵事起，詔群臣言得失。 奏陳今日急務，首在用人，人才有轉移之道，有培養之方，有考察之法。 上稱其剴切明辨。 尋疏薦李棠階、吳廷棟、王慶雲、嚴正基、江忠源五人。 寇氛益熾，复上言：「國用不足，兵伍不精，二者為天下大患。 於歲入常額外，誠不可別求搜刮之術，增一分則民受一分之害。 至歲出之數，兵餉為鉅，綠營兵額六十四萬，常虛六七萬以資給軍用。 自乾隆中增兵議起，歲糜帑二百餘萬。 其時大學士阿桂即憂其難繼，嘉、道間兩次議裁，不及十之四，仍宜汰五萬，復舊額。 自古開國之初，兵少而國強，其後兵愈多則力愈弱，餉愈多則國愈貧。 應請皇上註意將才，但使七十一鎮中有十餘鎮足為心腹，則緩急可恃矣。」 又深痛內外臣工諂諛欺飾，無陳善責難之風。 因上敬陳聖德預防流弊一疏，切指帝躬，有人所難言者，上優詔答之。 歷署刑部、吏部侍郎。 二年，典試江西，中途丁母憂歸。
Early in the Xianfeng reign, rebellion flared in Guangxi, and the throne ordered the ministers to speak frankly on the empire's strengths and failures. In his memorial he declared that the day's most urgent task was putting the right men in place—that talent could be redirected, cultivated, and tested by proper methods. The emperor praised the memorial as incisive, earnest, and lucid. Soon afterward he submitted a memorial recommending Li Tangjie, Wu Tingdong, Wang Qingyun, Yan Zhengji, and Jiang Zhongyuan. As the rebel threat intensified, he memorialized again: "Insufficient revenue and unskilled troops—these are the empire's two gravest ills. Beyond the regular annual revenue, we must not resort to new schemes of exaction—for every extra fraction taken, the people suffer proportionate harm. Of annual outlays, military pay was the heaviest burden: the Green Standard rolls listed 640,000 men, yet 60,000 to 70,000 posts were routinely left vacant to help meet military costs. Since the mid-Qianlong debate over troop increases, the treasury had been wasting more than two million taels a year on the army. Even then Grand Secretary Agui had warned that the burden could not be sustained; under Jiaqing and Daoguang two rounds of cuts were proposed, yet fewer than four-tenths were actually removed. He urged cutting another 50,000 men and restoring the old rolls. From antiquity, at a dynasty's founding few troops have meant a strong state; afterward the more soldiers there are, the weaker the army grows, and the more pay is spent, the poorer the treasury becomes. He asked the emperor to cultivate commanders of real talent: if even a dozen of the seventy-one garrisons could serve as a dependable core, the throne would have forces it could trust in any emergency." He also lamented that officials at court and in the provinces flattered, deceived, and concealed the truth, with none of the old spirit of frank counsel and mutual accountability. He therefore submitted a memorial on cultivating imperial virtue and forestalling abuses, speaking with blunt directness to the emperor himself on matters others dared not raise; the throne answered with an edict of gracious approval. He served in turn as acting Vice Minister of Punishments and of Personnel. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), while presiding over the Jiangxi provincial examinations, he was called home midway on news of his mother's death.
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三年，粵寇破江寧，據為偽都，分黨北犯河南、直隸，天下騷動，而國籓已前奉旨辦團練於長沙。 初，國籓欲疏請終制，郭嵩燾曰：「公素具澄清之抱，今不乘時自效，如君父何？ 且墨絰從戎，古制也。」 遂不復辭。 取明戚繼光遺法，募農民樸實壯健者，朝夕訓練之。 將領率用諸生，統眾數不逾五百，號「湘勇」。 騰書遐邇，雖卑賤與鈞禮。 山野材智之士感其誠，莫不往見，人人皆以曾公可與言事。 四境土匪發，聞警即以湘勇往。 立三等法，不以煩府縣獄。 旬月中，莠民猾胥，便宜捕斬二百餘人。 謗讟四起，自巡撫司道下皆心誹之，至以盛暑練操為虐士。 然見所奏輒得褒答受主知，未有以難也。 一日標兵與湘勇閧，至闌入國籓行台。 國籓親訴諸巡撫，巡撫漫謝之，不為理，即日移營城外避標兵。 或曰：「曷以聞？」 國籓歎曰：「大難未已，吾人敢以私憤瀆君父乎？」
In the third year (1853) the Taiping rebels seized Nanjing and made it their capital, while detachments marched north into Henan and Zhili and the empire was thrown into uproar. Guofan had already been ordered to organize local defense at Changsha. At first Guofan meant to petition for permission to observe the full three-year mourning. Guo Songtao said, "You have long aspired to set the realm to rights—if you do not seize this moment to serve, what becomes of your duty to sovereign and father? Besides, taking the field in mourning dress is an ancient precedent." With that he did not decline again. Adopting the methods left by the Ming general Qi Jiguang, he recruited plain, sturdy farmers and drilled them from dawn to dusk. He chose literati for his officers, kept each unit under five hundred men, and called the force the "Hunan Braves." He wrote openly to men near and far and treated even the humble as equals. Men of talent from the countryside, moved by his sincerity, came to see him one after another; all believed that Lord Zeng was someone with whom great affairs could be discussed. When bandits erupted throughout the region, he dispatched the Hunan Braves at the first alarm. He set up a three-tier system of justice and did not burden the regular courts. Within a fortnight he had seized and summarily executed more than two hundred ruffians and corrupt clerks. Slander spread on every side; from the governor down through the provincial bureaucracy men secretly resented him, even charging that drilling troops in midsummer was cruelty. Yet his memorials consistently won imperial praise, and he enjoyed the emperor's confidence—so none dared openly stand in his way. One day the provincial garrison troops clashed with the Hunan Braves and even stormed into Guofan's headquarters. Guofan appealed in person to the governor, who offered a perfunctory apology but took no action; that same day Guofan moved his camp outside the walls to avoid the garrison. Someone asked, "Why not report this to the throne?" Guofan sighed and said, "The great crisis is not yet past—how dare we trouble our sovereign and father with private grievances?"
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嘗與嵩燾、忠源論東南形勢多阻水，欲勦賊非治水師不可，乃奏請造戰艦於衡州。 匠卒無曉船制者，短橈長槳，出自精思，以人力勝風水，遂成大小二百四十艦。 募水陸萬人，水軍以褚汝航、楊載福、彭玉麟領之，陸軍以塔齊布、羅澤南領之。 賊自江西上竄，再陷九江、安慶。 忠源戰歿廬州，吳文鎔督師黃州亦敗死。 漢陽失，武昌戒嚴，賊复乘勢擾湖南。 國籓銳欲討賊，率水陸軍東下。 舟師初出湖，大風，損數十艘。 陸師至岳州，前隊潰退，引還長沙。 賊陷湘潭，邀擊靖港，又敗，國籓憤投水，幕下士章壽麟掖起之，得不死。 而同時塔齊布大破賊湘潭，國籓營長沙高峰寺，重整軍實，人人捓揄之。 或請增兵，國籓曰：「吾水陸萬人非不多，而遇賊即潰。 岳州之敗，水師拒戰者惟載福一營； 湘潭之戰，陸師塔齊布、水師載福各兩營：以此知兵貴精不貴多。 故諸葛敗祁山，且謀減兵損食，勤求己過，非虛言也。 且古人用兵，先明功罪賞罰。 今世亂，賢人君子皆潛伏，吾以義聲倡導，同履危亡。 諸公之初從我，非以利動也，故於法亦有難施，其致敗由此。」 諸將聞之皆服。
He had discussed with Guo Songtao and Jiang Zhongyuan how the southeast was a country of rivers and that suppressing the rebels required a navy; he memorialized to build warships at Hengzhou. None of the craftsmen or soldiers knew naval design; through careful thought he devised short oars and long sweeps so that human power could overcome wind and current, and in the end completed 240 vessels large and small. He raised ten thousand men for combined land and river operations: Chu Ruhang, Yang Zaifu, and Peng Yulin commanded the fleet, while Taqibu and Luo Zinan led the land forces. The rebels drove up from Jiangxi and again seized Jiujiang and Anqing. Jiang Zhongyuan fell in battle at Luzhou, and Wu Wenrong, commanding at Huangzhou, was likewise defeated and killed. Hanyang fell, Wuchang was placed on alert, and the rebels again swept into Hunan on the tide of victory. Burning to strike at the rebels, Guofan led his combined army and fleet down the Yangtze. As the fleet first cleared the lake, a fierce gale wrecked several dozen ships. The land force reached Yuezhou, but the vanguard collapsed and he was forced back to Changsha. The rebels seized Xiangtan; he met them at Jinggang and was beaten again. In despair Guofan threw himself into the river, but Zhang Shoulin, a member of his staff, pulled him out and saved his life. Yet at the same moment Taqibu won a crushing victory at Xiangtan. Guofan made camp at Gaofeng Temple in Changsha and set about reorganizing his forces, while men on every side mocked him. Some urged him to raise more troops. Guofan said, "Ten thousand men on land and water are not too few, yet they break the moment they meet the enemy. At Yuezhou only Yang Zaifu's single battalion among the fleet stood and fought; at Xiangtan Taqibu on land and Yang Zaifu on the water each had only two battalions—this shows that armies value quality, not numbers. When Zhuge Liang was defeated at Qishan he even planned to cut troops and rations and searched diligently for his own faults—that was no empty lesson. Moreover, the ancients made merit, guilt, reward, and punishment explicit before they fought. In this age of chaos worthy men lie low; I rallied them with a call to righteousness, and they share my peril. You followed me at first not for profit, so it is hard to enforce discipline strictly—and that is why we have been defeated." When the generals heard this, they were all convinced.
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After the land force took Xiangtan, the governor and provincial commander reported the victory, while Guofan submitted a plea for punishment. The emperor rebuked Provincial Commander Bao Qibao, stripped him of his post, and replaced him with Taqibu. On the day Taqibu received his seal, crowds gathered and marveled that Guofan knew how to judge men and that the emperor could see clearly across the realm. The rebels took Changde from Yuezhou, then drove north, and Wuchang fell once more. Guofan marched on Yuezhou, beheaded the rebel commander Zeng Tianyang, fought a series of engagements, and captured Chenglingji. He concentrated his forces at Jinkou and planned the recapture of Wuchang. Luo Zinan struck the rebel camp at Huayuan along the east bank; Taqibu lay in ambush on Hongshan; Yang Zaifu's fleet drove deep into the enemy lines, and his men stood exposed in the open, heedless of musket fire. Seeing the government forces in overwhelming strength, the rebels in Wuchang and Hanyang fled by night, and both cities were recovered. Guofan had earlier asked to be stripped of rank after the defeat at Jinggang; when that memorial was now submitted, the throne appointed him acting Governor of Hubei, soon added Vice Minister of War, released him from the acting governorship, and ordered him to command the advance downriver.
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當是時，水師奮厲無前，大破賊田家鎮，斃賊數万，至於九江，前鋒薄湖口。 攻梅家洲賊壘不下，駛入鄱湖。 賊築壘湖口斷其後，舟不得出，於是外江、內湖阻絕。 外江戰船無小艇，賊乘舴艋夜襲營，擲火燒坐船，國籓跳而免，水師遂大亂。 上疏請罪，詔旨寬免，謂於大局無傷也。 五年，賊再陷武漢，擾荊襄。 國籓遣胡林翼等軍還援湖北，塔齊布留攻九江，而躬至南昌撫定水師之困內湖者。 澤南從征江西，复弋陽，拔廣信，破義寧，而塔齊布卒於軍。 國籓在江西與巡撫陳啟邁不相能，澤南奔命往來，上書國籓，言東南大勢在武昌，請率所部援鄂，國籓從之。 幕客劉蓉諫曰：「公所恃者塔、羅。 今塔將軍亡，羅又遠行，脫有急，誰堪使者？」 國籓曰：「吾計之熟矣，東南大局宜如是，俱困於此無為也。」 嵩燾祖餞澤南曰：「曾公兵單，奈何？」 澤南曰：「天苟不亡本朝，公必不死。」 九月，補授兵部侍郎。
The fleet now fought with unstoppable fury, crushing the rebels at Tianjiazhen and killing tens of thousands, reaching Jiujiang with the vanguard pressing on Hukou. Unable to reduce the rebel fort at Meijiazhou, they sailed into Poyang Lake. The rebels fortified Hukou and cut off their retreat, trapping the ships so that the outer Yangtze and inner lake were completely cut off from each other. The warships on the outer river had no small craft; the rebels came by night in skiffs, set fire to the command vessels, and Guofan leaped clear and escaped as the fleet collapsed into chaos. He memorialized asking to be punished; the throne graciously excused him, declaring that the overall campaign was unharmed. In the fifth year (1855) the rebels again seized Wuhan and raided the Jing-Xiang region. Guofan sent Hu Linyi and others back to relieve Hubei, left Taqibu to press the siege of Jiujiang, and went in person to Nanchang to steady the fleet trapped in Poyang Lake. Luo Zinan campaigned in Jiangxi, retaking Yiyang, capturing Guangxin, and breaking Yining, while Taqibu died in camp. In Jiangxi Guofan clashed with Governor Chen Qimai; Luo Zinan shuttled back and forth on urgent orders and wrote to Guofan that the key to the southeast was Wuchang, asking to lead his division to relieve Hubei, and Guofan agreed. His adviser Liu Rong objected: "You rely on Taqibu and Luo Zinan. Taqibu is dead and Luo is marching away—if trouble comes, who will you send?" Guofan replied, "I have weighed this carefully. The southeast must be handled this way—we accomplish nothing if we all stay trapped here." At the farewell feast Guo Songtao said to Luo Zinan, "Lord Zeng's force is thin—what then?" Luo Zinan answered, "If Heaven does not mean to destroy our dynasty, Lord Zeng will not die." In the ninth month he received formal appointment as Vice Minister of War.
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六年，賊酋石達開由湖北竄江西，連陷八府一州，九江賊踞自如，湖南北聲息不相聞。 國籓困南昌，遣將分屯要地，羽檄交馳，不廢吟誦。 作水陸師得勝歌，教軍士戰守技藝、結營布陳之法，歌者咸感奮，以殺賊敢死為榮。 顧眾寡，終不能大挫賊。 議者爭請調澤南軍，上以武漢功垂成，不可棄。 澤南督戰益急，卒死於軍。 玉麟聞江西警，芒鞋走千里，穿賊中至南昌助守。 林翼已為湖北巡撫，國籓弟國華、國葆用父命乞師林翼，將五千人攻瑞州。 湖南巡撫駱秉章亦資國荃兵援吉安，兄弟皆會行間。 而國籓前所遣援湖北諸軍，久之再克武漢，直下九江，李續賓八千人軍城東。 續賓者，與弟續宜皆澤南高第弟子也。 載福戰船四百泊江兩岸，江寧將軍都興阿馬隊、鮑超步隊駐小池口，凡數万人。 國籓本以憂懼治軍，自南昌迎勞，見軍容甚盛，益申儆告誡之。 而是時江南大營潰，督師向榮退守丹陽，卒。 和春為欽差大臣，張國樑總統諸軍攻江寧。
In the sixth year (1856) the rebel leader Shi Dakai swept from Hubei into Jiangxi and seized eight prefectures and one department in succession; the rebels at Jiujiang held firm as ever, and Hunan was cut off from news north and south. Besieged at Nanchang, Guofan posted generals at key points; urgent dispatches flew back and forth, yet he never set aside his daily reading and recitation. He composed victory songs for the army and fleet, using them to teach tactics of attack and defense and methods of camp layout and battle formation; the men who sang them were stirred to fervor and took pride in killing rebels and facing death without fear. Given his numbers, however, he could never deliver a decisive blow to the rebels. Critics clamored to recall Luo Zinan's army, but the emperor ruled that the Wuhan campaign was near success and must not be abandoned. Luo Zinan pressed the fighting ever harder and in the end died in the field. When Peng Yulin heard the alarm in Jiangxi, he walked a thousand li in straw sandals, passed through enemy lines, and reached Nanchang to help hold the city. Hu Linyi was now Governor of Hubei; Guofan's brothers Guohua and Guobao, invoking their father's order, begged troops from Hu Linyi and led five thousand men against Ruizhou. Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang also supplied Zeng Guoquan's troops to relieve Ji'an, and the brothers all served together in the field. Meanwhile the forces Guofan had sent to relieve Hubei, after a long campaign, retook Wuhan and drove down to Jiujiang, where Li Xubing encamped eight thousand men east of the city. Li Xubing and his younger brother Li Xuyi were both among Luo Zinan's finest pupils. Yang Zaifu anchored four hundred warships along both banks; the Jiangning garrison general Duxing'a with his cavalry and Bao Chao's infantry held Xiaochikou—in all tens of thousands of men. Guofan had always led his army through anxiety and strict discipline; he came out from Nanchang to welcome them, saw their imposing array, and redoubled his stern warnings and admonitions. Yet at that very moment the Great Camp of Jiangnan collapsed; Commander Xiang Rong fell back to Danyang and died there. He Chun was appointed Imperial Commissioner, and Zhang Guoliang took overall command of the armies attacking Jiangning.
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In the second month of the seventh year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan learned of his father's death and returned home at once. He was granted three months' leave to mourn but insisted on observing the full mourning term; the court permitted him to relinquish his vice-ministership. Once Hu Linyi had secured Hubei, he pressed the siege of Jiujiang, broke Hukou, and after years cut off the river fleet was reunited. Yang Zaifu captured Wangjiang and Dongliu in succession, swept past Anqing, took Tongling and Nizha, and joined the Jiangnan army. From this the Hunan Army's river fleet won fame throughout the empire. Hu Linyi, pointing out that Zeng Guofan had created this army and that Yang Zaifu and Peng Yulin were both his old officers, asked that Zeng Guofan be recalled to command the forces. Just as Jiujiang was retaken, Shi Dakai fled into Zhejiang and gradually into Fujian, while a splinter force again raided Jiangxi; the court ordered Zeng Guofan to take charge of Zhejiang military affairs.
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Zeng Guofan reached Jiangxi and encamped at Jianchang, and was then ordered to relieve Fujian. Zeng Guofan thought the Fujian rebels were not the main worry, but Jingdezhen stood at a vital junction; he sent generals to aid northern Ganzhou and attack Jingdezhen. Zeng Guoquan pursued the rebels to Fuliang, and the cities of Jiangxi were retaken in succession. At this time Shi Dakai again fled into Hunan and besieged Shaoyang. The emperor feared Sichuan might also be unsettled; Hu Linyi argued that Hubei's supplies depended on Sichuan salt, and that Zeng Guofan, long at war, held no territorial post—he and Guan Wen jointly memorialized asking that Zeng Guofan be sent to relieve Sichuan. When the rebels fled into Guangxi and eased pressure upstream, Chen Yucheng again seized Luzhou and Li Xubing was killed at Sanhe; Hu Linyi, seeing bandits spreading between Luzhou and Shouzhou and ultimately threatening Hunan, changed course and urged keeping Zeng Guofan to plan the Anhui campaign together. The army was split into three columns of ten thousand men each. Zeng Guofan advanced from Susong and Shipai toward Anqing; Duolonga and Bao Chao crossed Lake Tai to seize Tongcheng; Hu Linyi marched from Yingshan toward Shucheng and Lu'an. After Duolonga and his colleagues routed the rebels at Xiaochi and retook Taihu and Qianshan, they encamped at Tongcheng. Zeng Guoquan led the armies in besieging Anqing, forming a pincer with the Tongcheng force. Before Anqing fell, rebels in southern Anhui seized Guangde and stormed Hangzhou.
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李秀成大會群賊建平，分道援江寧，江南大營复潰，常州、蘇州相繼失，咸豐十年閏三月也。 左宗棠聞而歎曰：「此勝敗之轉機也！ 江南諸軍，將蹇兵疲久矣。 滌而清之，庶幾後來可藉手乎？」 或問：「誰可當者？」 林翼曰：「朝廷以江南事付曾公，天下不足平也。」 於是天子慎選帥，就加國籓兵部尚書銜，署理兩江總督，旋即真，授欽差大臣。 是時江、浙賊氛熾，或請撤安慶圍先所急。 國籓曰：「安慶一軍為克金陵張本，不可動也。」 遂南渡江，駐祁門。 江、浙官紳告急書日數十至，援蘇、援滬、援皖、援鎮江詔書亦疊下。 國籓至祁門未數日，賊陷寧國，陷徽州。 東南方困兵革，而英吉利复失好，以兵至。 僧格林沁敗績天津，文宗狩熱河，國籓聞警，請提兵北上，會和議成，乃止。
Li Xiucheng gathered the rebel hosts at Jianping and sent columns to relieve Jiangning; the Great Camp of Jiangnan collapsed again, and Changzhou and Suzhou fell in turn—it was the intercalary third month of the tenth year of Xianfeng. When Zuo Zongtang heard the news he sighed and said, "This is the turning point between victory and defeat! The armies of Jiangnan have long been led by failing generals with exhausted troops. If they are cleared away and renewed, perhaps those who come after may have something to build on?" Someone asked, "Who can take command?" Hu Linyi said, "If the court entrusts the affairs of Jiangnan to Lord Zeng, the whole realm can be pacified." Thereupon the emperor carefully chose a commander, immediately added Zeng Guofan to the Ministry of War with ministerial rank, made him acting Governor-General of the Two Jiangs, soon confirmed him in office, and appointed him Imperial Commissioner. At this time rebel strength flared in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and some urged lifting the siege of Anqing to meet the more urgent crisis. Zeng Guofan said, "The Anqing army is the foundation for taking Jinling; it must not be moved." He then crossed the Yangtze southward and encamped at Qimen. Pleas for help from Jiangsu and Zhejiang officials and gentry arrived by the dozen each day, and edicts to relieve Suzhou, Shanghai, Anhui, and Zhenjiang followed one after another. Within days of Zeng Guofan's arrival at Qimen, the rebels seized Ningguo and Huizhou. The southeast was worn down by war, and Britain again broke relations and sent troops. Sengge Rinchen was defeated at Tianjin; Emperor Xianfeng fled to Rehe; Zeng Guofan, hearing the alarm, asked to march north with his army, but when peace was made he desisted.
14
其冬，大為賊困，一出祁門東陷婺源； 一出祁門西陷景德； 一入羊棧嶺攻大營。 軍報絕不通，將吏惵然有憂色，固請移營江乾就水師。 國籓曰：「無故退軍，兵家所忌。」 卒不從，使人間行檄鮑超、張運蘭亟引兵會。 身在軍中，意氣自如，時與賓佐酌酒論文。 自官京朝，即日記所言行，後履危困無稍間。 國籓駐祁門，本資餉江西，及景德失，議者爭言取徽州通浙米。 乃自將大軍次休寧，值天雨，八營皆潰，草遺囑寄家，誓死守休寧。 適宗棠大破賊樂平，運道通，移駐東流。 多隆阿連敗賊桐城，鮑超一軍游擊無定居，林翼復遣將助之。 十一年八月，國荃遂克安慶。 捷聞，而文宗崩，林翼亦卒。 穆宗即位，太后垂簾聽政，加國籓太子少保銜，命節制江蘇、安徽、江西、浙江四省。 國籓惶懼，疏辭，不允，朝有大政，諮而後行。
That winter he was hard pressed by rebels: one column east of Qimen seized Wuyuan; one west of Qimen seized Jingdezhen; one entered Yangzhan Pass and attacked the main camp. Military reports ceased entirely; officers and officials looked fearful and repeatedly urged moving the camp to the riverbank to join the fleet. Zeng Guofan said, "A withdrawal without cause is what strategists most dread." He refused, and sent men by secret routes to order Bao Chao and Zhang Yunlan to march to join him at once. Though in the midst of the army, his spirits remained steady, and he sometimes drank and discussed literature with his advisers. Since his days at court he had kept a daily record of words and deeds, and afterward, even amid peril and hardship, he never missed a day. Zeng Guofan at Qimen had originally drawn supplies from Jiangxi; when Jingdezhen fell, debaters all urged taking Huizhou to open a route for Zhejiang grain. He then led the main army to Xiuning; rain fell, eight camps collapsed, he drafted a final testament to send home, and swore to hold Xiuning to the death. Just then Zuo Zongtang routed the rebels at Leping, the supply route opened, and he moved his headquarters to Dongliu. Duolonga repeatedly defeated the rebels at Tongcheng; Bao Chao's division raided without a fixed base; Hu Linyi again sent generals to assist. In the eighth month of the eleventh year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guoquan at last took Anqing. When victory was reported, Emperor Xianfeng died and Hu Linyi also passed away. Emperor Tongzhi succeeded; the Empress Dowager governed from behind the curtain; Zeng Guofan was given the rank of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and ordered to coordinate Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. Zeng Guofan was fearful and memorialized to decline; the request was denied; on major state affairs he consulted the throne before acting.
15
當是時，偽天王洪秀全僭號踞金陵，偽忠王李秀成等犯蘇、滬，偽侍王李世賢等陷浙杭，偽輔王楊輔清等屯寧國，偽康王汪海洋窺江西，偽英王陳玉成屯廬州，捻首苗霈霖出入潁、壽，與玉成合，圖竄山東、河南，眾皆號數十萬。 國籓與國荃策進取，國荃曰：「急搗金陵，則寇必以全力護巢穴，而後蘇、杭可圖也。」 國籓然之。 乃以江寧事付國荃，以浙江事付宗棠，而以江蘇事付李鴻章。 鴻章故出國籓門，以編修為幕僚，改道員，至是令從淮上募勇八千，選良將付之，號「淮軍」。 同治元年，拜協辦大學士，督諸軍進討。 於是國荃有搗金陵之師，鴻章有徵蘇、滬之師，載福、玉麟有肅清下游之師； 大江以北，多隆阿有取廬州之師，續宜有援潁州之師； 大江以南，鮑超有攻寧國之師，運蘭有防剿徽州之師，宗棠有規復全浙之師：十道並出，皆受成於國籓。
At that time the false Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan held Jinling in regal pretension; the false Loyal King Li Xiucheng and others attacked Suzhou and Shanghai; the false Attendant King Li Shixian and others seized Zhejiang and Hangzhou; the false Assistant King Yang Fuqing and others held Ningguo; the false King of Kang Wang Haiyang watched Jiangxi; the false Brave King Chen Yucheng held Luzhou; Nian chief Miao Peilin moved in and out of Ying and Shou, cooperating with Yucheng and plotting to break into Shandong and Henan—all claiming forces in the hundreds of thousands. Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan planned the advance; Guoquan said, "Strike Jinling at once, and the rebels must commit their full strength to defending their nest—then Suzhou and Hangzhou may be taken." Zeng Guofan agreed. He entrusted affairs of Jiangning to Guoquan, affairs of Zhejiang to Zuo Zongtang, and affairs of Jiangsu to Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang had formerly been Zeng Guofan's pupil, served as a compiler on his staff, was transferred to circuit intendant rank, and was now ordered to raise eight thousand braves along the Huai, given capable generals, and styled the "Huai Army." In the first year of Tongzhi he was appointed Associate Grand Secretary and directed all armies in the advance. Thus Zeng Guoquan had an army to strike Jinling, Li Hongzhang an army to recover Suzhou and Shanghai, and Yang Zaifu and Peng Yulin an army to clear the lower reaches; north of the Yangtze, Duolonga had an army to take Luzhou and Li Xuyi an army to relieve Yingzhou; south of the Yangtze, Bao Chao had an army to attack Ningguo, Zhang Yunlan an army to defend and suppress Huizhou, and Zuo Zongtang an army to recover all Zhejiang: ten columns marched together, all operating under Zeng Guofan's authority.
16
賊之都金陵也，堅築壕壘，餉械足，猝不可拔。 疾疫大作，將士死亡山積，幾不能軍。 國籓自以德薄，請簡大臣馳赴軍，俾分己責，上優詔慰勉之，謂：「天災流行，豈卿一人之咎？ 意者朝廷政多缺失，我君臣當勉圖禳救，為民請命。 且環顧中外，才力、氣量無逾卿者！ 時勢艱難，無稍懈也。」 國籓讀詔感泣。 時洪秀全被圍久，召李秀成蘇州，李世賢浙江，悉眾來援，號六十萬，圍雨花台軍。 國荃拒戰六十四日，解去。 三年五月，水師克九洑洲，江寧城合圍。 十月，鴻章克蘇州。 四年二月，宗棠克杭州。 國籓以江寧久不下，請鴻章來會師，未發，國荃攻益急，克之。 江寧平，天子褒功，加太子太傅，封一等毅勇侯，賞雙眼翎。 開國以來，文臣封侯自是始。 朝野稱賀，而國籓功成不居，粥粥如畏。 穆宗每簡督撫，輒密詢其人，未敢指缺疏薦，以謂疆臣既專征伐，不當更分黜陟之柄，外重內輕之漸，不可不防。
As the rebels held Jinling, they had built strong ramparts and ditches with ample supplies and arms—not to be taken in a rush. Plague broke out on a vast scale; officers and men died in heaps until the army could scarcely hold together. Zeng Guofan, judging his own virtue insufficient, asked that a senior minister be sent to the army to share his burden; the throne issued a gracious edict of consolation, saying, "When calamity spreads from Heaven, how can the fault be yours alone? Perhaps the court's policies have many failings; we ruler and ministers should strive to avert disaster and plead for the people's lives. Moreover, looking all around at home and abroad, none surpass you in talent, strength, and breadth of mind! The times are hard; do not slacken in the least." Zeng Guofan read the edict and wept with emotion. At this time Hong Xiuquan, long besieged, summoned Li Xiucheng from Suzhou and Li Shixian from Zhejiang; they came with all their forces, claiming six hundred thousand men, and besieged the army at Yuhuatai. Zeng Guoquan resisted for sixty-four days, and they withdrew. In the fifth month of the third year of Tongzhi, the river fleet took Jiufuzhou and Jiangning was completely encircled. In the tenth month, Li Hongzhang took Suzhou. In the second month of the fourth year of Tongzhi, Zuo Zongtang took Hangzhou. Zeng Guofan, because Jiangning would not fall, asked Li Hongzhang to come for a joint campaign; before he set out, Zeng Guoquan pressed the attack ever harder and took the city. With Jiangning pacified, the emperor rewarded merit: Zeng Guofan was made Senior Preceptor of the Heir Apparent, enfeoffed as First-rank Marquis of Yiyong with brave merit, and granted the double-eyed peacock feather. Since the founding of the dynasty, this was the first enfeoffment of a civil official as marquis. Court and country celebrated, yet Zeng Guofan, his work complete, did not presume; he remained cautious and deferential as if in fear. Whenever Emperor Tongzhi chose governors and governors-general, he secretly inquired about the man; Zeng Guofan dared not nominate by name in memorials, holding that frontier commanders already wielded punitive authority and should not also share appointment and dismissal power—the drift toward external strength and internal weakness must be guarded against.
17
初，官軍積習深，勝不讓，敗不救。 國籓練湘軍，謂必萬眾一心，乃可辦賊，故以忠誠倡天下。 其後又謂淮上風氣勁，宜別立一軍。 湘勇利山徑，馳騁平原非所長，且用武十年，氣亦稍衰矣，故欲練淮士為湘勇之繼。 至是東南大定，裁湘軍，進淮軍，而捻匪事起。
At first, government armies were deeply set in bad habits: victors would not yield credit, the defeated would not rescue one another. Zeng Guofan trained the Hunan Army, holding that only when ten thousand men were of one mind could rebels be subdued, and so he took loyalty and integrity as his banner to the empire. Later he also held that the Huai region's spirit was vigorous and a separate army should be raised. Hunan braves excelled on mountain paths but were not suited to plains campaigning; after ten years of war their ardor had slackened somewhat, so he wished to train Huai men as successors to the Hunan braves. By then the southeast was largely settled; he reduced the Hunan Army and expanded the Huai Army, and the Nian bandit trouble arose.
18
捻匪者，始於山東遊民相聚，其後剽掠光、固、潁、亳、淮、徐之間，捻紙燃脂，故謂之「捻」。 有眾數十萬，馬數万，蹂躪數千里，分合不常。 捻首四人，曰張總愚、任柱、牛洪、賴文光。 自洪寇、苗練嘗糾捻與官軍戰，益悉攻鬥，勝保、袁甲三不能禦。 僧格林沁征討數年，亦未能大創之。 國籓聞僧軍輕騎追賊，一日夜三百餘裡，曰：「此於兵法，必蹶上將軍。」 未幾而王果戰歿曹州，上聞大驚，詔國籓速赴山東剿捻，節制直隸、山東、河南三省，而鴻章代為總督，廷旨日促出師。 國籓上言：「楚軍裁撤殆盡，今調劉松山一軍及劉銘傳淮勇尚不足。 當更募徐州勇，以楚軍之規模，開齊、兗之風氣； 又增募馬隊及黃河水師，皆非旦夕可就。 直隸宜自籌防兵，分守河岸，不宜令河南之兵兼顧河北。 僧格林沁嘗週曆五省，臣不能也。 如以徐州為老營，則山東之兗、沂、曹、濟，河南之歸、陳，江甦之淮、徐、海，安徽之廬、鳳、潁、泗，此十三府州責之臣，而以其餘責各督撫。 汛地有專屬，則軍務乃漸有歸宿。」 又奏：「扼要駐軍臨淮關、周家口、濟寧、徐州，為四鎮。 一處有急，三處往援。 今賊已成流寇，若賊流而我與之俱流，必致疲於奔命。 故臣堅持初議，以有定之兵，制無定之寇，重迎剿，不重尾追。」 然督師年餘，捻馳突如故。 將士皆謂不苦戰而苦奔逐，乃起張秋抵清江築長牆，憑運河御之，未成而捻竄襄、鄧間，因移而西，修沙河、賈魯河，開壕置守。 分地甫定，而捻衝河南汛地，复突而東。 時議頗咎國籓計迂闊，然亦無他術可制捻也。
The Nian bandits began as vagabonds gathering in Shandong; later they raided between Guangde, Gushi, Yingzhou, Bozhou, Huai, and Xu; they twisted paper and lit fat to signal—hence the name "Nian." They numbered hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands of horses, trampling thousands of li, splitting and merging without fixed pattern. There were four Nian chiefs: Zhang Zongwan, Ren Zhu, Niu Hong, and Lai Wenguang. Since the Taiping rebels and militia leaders had often enlisted Nian bands to fight government troops, they grew ever more skilled in combat; Sheng Bao and Yuan Jiasan could not hold them. Sengge Rinchen campaigned for years yet could not inflict a crushing blow. Zeng Guofan heard that Sengge Rinchen's army pursued rebels with light cavalry more than three hundred li in a day and night, and said, "By the art of war this must bring the commanding general to ruin." Before long the prince indeed fell in battle at Caozhou; the emperor was greatly alarmed and ordered Zeng Guofan to hasten to Shandong to suppress the Nian, coordinate Zhili, Shandong, and Henan, while Li Hongzhang replaced him as governor-general; court orders daily pressed him to march. Zeng Guofan memorialized: "The Chu army has been reduced almost to nothing; even with Liu Songshen's division and Liu Mingchuan's Huai braves now mobilized, the force is still insufficient. More braves should be raised at Xuzhou, on the model of the Chu army, to develop the spirit of Qi and Yan; cavalry and a Yellow River fleet should also be added—these cannot be ready overnight. Zhili should raise its own defensive troops and garrison the riverbanks; Henan's army should not be made to cover Hebei as well. Sengge Rinchen once toured five provinces; your servant cannot do that. If Xuzhou is made the base camp, then Yan, Yi, Cao, and Ji in Shandong; Gui and Chen in Henan; Huai, Xu, and Hai in Jiangsu; and Lu, Feng, Ying, and Si in Anhui—these thirteen prefectures and departments would be my responsibility, and the rest would fall to the various governors and governors-general. When garrison districts have fixed assignments, military affairs gradually find their proper place." He also memorialized: "Troops should be stationed at key points at Linhuaiguan, Zhoujiakou, Jining, and Xuzhou as four garrison towns. When one place is in crisis, three others go to its aid. Now the rebels have become roving bandits; if they roam and we roam with them, we must wear ourselves out in endless pursuit. Therefore your servant holds to his original proposal: use fixed troops to control unfixed bandits, emphasizing intercepting strikes rather than trailing pursuit." Yet after more than a year as commanding general, the Nian still raided as before. Officers and men all complained that their hardship lay not in fighting but in endless pursuit; he then built a long wall from Zhangqiu to Qingjiang, relying on the Grand Canal for defense; before it was finished the Nian broke into Xiangyang and Dengzhou, so he shifted west, repaired the Sha and Jialu rivers, dug trenches, and set guards. The territorial divisions had barely been fixed when the Nian struck the Henan defense lines and surged east again. Critics widely blamed Zeng Guofan's strategy as ponderous and impractical, yet no other method could bring the Nian to heel.
19
The people of Shandong and Henan, used to Sengge Rinchen fighting in the field, resented Zeng Guofan, a commander-in-chief, sitting quietly at Xuzhou, and slander filled the roads. After long years in the field, Zeng Guofan grew ever more cautious about committing troops. First came his plan for four fixed garrison towns; then his strategy of holding the Yellow River and Grand Canal line. After repeated impeachment from the censorate and his own sense that river defense was failing, while the court was recalling Guoquan, he memorialized that Li Hongzhang, as governor-general of Jiangsu, should take the field at Xuzhou and jointly handle the eastern front with the Shandong governor; Zeng Guoquan, as Hubei governor, would take the field at Xiangyang and handle the western front with the Henan governor, while Zeng Guofan himself would remain at Zhoujiakou to coordinate. Others impeached him for arrogance, and Zeng Guofan concluded that power could not be held indefinitely; he grew ever more wary of slander and fearful of public censure. He took sick leave for several months, then asked to resign his post and remain with the army as a private citizen to serve; he also asked to surrender his enfeoffment—all were denied.
20
In the winter of the fifth year of Tongzhi he returned to Jiangnan, and Li Hongzhang took over command of the army. Niu Hong was dead; Zhang Zongwan fled into Shaanxi while Ren Zhu and Lai Wenguang fled into Hubei—from then on they were called the Eastern and Western Nian. In the sixth year he received formal appointment as Grand Secretary and remained at his post. The Eastern Nian fled from Henan into Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Qingzhou; Li Hongzhang and Liu Changyou proposed pooling four provinces' forces to block the Grand Canal. The bandits turned west again, crossed Jiaozhou, Laizhou, and Henan, and entered Haizhou. Government forces killed Ren Zhu in battle, and Lai Wenguang fled and died at Yangzhou. With the Eastern Nian suppressed, Zeng Guofan was granted the hereditary rank of Cloud Cavalry Captain. After the Western Nian entered Shaanxi, Liu Songshan defeated them. They crossed the frozen river into Shanxi, entered Zhili, and threatened Baoding and Tianjin. Liu Songshan circled ahead of them and routed them at Xian County. Relief armies from every quarter converged, but the bandits crossed the Grand Canal and fled into Dongchang and Wuding. Li Hongzhang shifted his army to Dezhou; with the river in full flood, he held the line to trap them. Zeng Guofan sent Huang Yisheng with the river fleet to assist, and government forces crushed the bandits at Renping. Zhang Zongwan drowned himself, and the Western Nian were suppressed. Every strategy of river defense had originated with Zeng Guofan. That year he was appointed Grand Secretary of the Hall of Military Eminence and transferred to Governor-General of Zhili.
21
In government Zeng Guofan held to the larger pattern and planned for the whole strategic picture. For the western campaigns he proposed clearing the bandits of Longyou first and only then advancing beyond the passes; for Yunnan and Guizhou he proposed making Sichuan and Hunan the foundation. In each case he laid down a plan at the outset, and years later events vindicated him. Once Westerners entered China, foreign affairs grew daily more pressing. Before Nanjing fell, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France all offered military aid; Zeng Guofan politely declined. When the court debated purchasing steam engines and establishing arsenals, he strongly supported the plan and proposed selecting schoolboys to study Western technology in Europe. Whenever treaties were drafted, the throne asked what might be conceded; Zeng Guofan held that empty disputes over ceremony could be yielded, but anything that threatened the people's livelihood must be refused. Once in Zhili he made troop training, official discipline, and river control his three priorities, carried out reforms in sequence, established bureaus for clearing lawsuits and halls for honoring worthies, and government and moral instruction flourished.
22
In the fourth month of the ninth year of Tongzhi, Tianjin residents killed the French consul Fontanier, destroyed churches, and wounded dozens of Christians. Trade Commissioner Chonghou proposed severe punishment, but the people would not accept it. Zeng Guofan was then suffering from eye trouble when an edict ordered him to Tianjin at once. He sought a balanced settlement to preserve peace, executed seventeen men, and banished prefectural and district officials. When Zeng Guofan first arrived, Tianjin residents expected him to reverse Chonghou's course and prepared troops to resist the French. Yet the empire had only just been pacified, the Hunan army disbanded, and Tianjin lay close to the capital; a clash between residents and Christians was not worth war, yet Tianjin blamed him bitterly. Old friends who held lofty views wrote daily to reproach him; provincial lodges even tore down his inscribed couplets. Yet Zeng Guofan weighed the balance of Chinese and foreign military power and the costs of peace and war, blamed only himself, and offered no defense. Ding Richang memorialized: "From antiquity, outsiders fail to grasp the hardships of those inside the affair; one voice is echoed by a hundred, enough to mislead the throne and upset great plans. In the end affairs rupture, the state bears endless loss, while outsiders share none of the calamity yet win renown for upholding pure opinion—your servant is deeply pained!"
23
Bearing heavy slander and growing gravely ill, Zeng Guofan summoned Li Hongzhang to handle the case; within a month the affair was settled along the original lines. When a vacancy opened in the Two Jiangs, he was transferred to Jiangnan, and Li Hongzhang was made governor-general of Zhili. When the people of Jiangnan learned he was coming, they burned incense to welcome him. With classics and histories nearly lost after the rebellion, he established an official publishing bureau; its editions were meticulously collated. He ceremonially invited renowned scholars to head academies; his staff gathered the finest men of the age, and Jiangnan culture rivaled its most flourishing era.
24
Zeng Guofan was imposing in bearing, with a fine beard and moustache and sharp, angular eyes. When receiving guests he would gaze at them for a long time without speaking, awing all who met him; after they left he recorded their strengths and weaknesses, never erring in his judgment. By nature he loved learning and pursued it all his life without weariness; he had a family tradition of scholarship yet was not bound to one school. His scholarship combined Han and Song learning; he held that the ancient kings' way of governing, though woven of countless strands, was unified by ritual. Regretting that Qin Huitian's Comprehensive Study of the Five Rites lacked a section on food and wealth, he compiled supplements on the salt tax, sea transport, currency, and river dikes in six volumes; he also lamented that ancient ritual was incomplete without military rites, which ought to have their own section, as Qi Jingyuan had recorded. Commentators held that the camp regulations Zeng Guofan drew up came close to true military ritual. In his later years he sought to transform the people through quiet moral example and devoted his entire salary to supporting scholars. Veteran scholars and established Confucians all gathered under his patronage. He excelled at judging men and employing them well; those he advanced and recommended are beyond counting. At a single meeting he would assess a man's talent, and he was never wrong. He often cited his ancestors' teaching of farming and reading to instruct his household. He treated officers and staff like his own sons and brothers; though they stood in awe of him, they were glad to serve him. He dwelt long in Jiangnan, where his merit and beneficence were greatest.
25
In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi he died in office at the age of sixty-two. The common people wept in the lanes and painted his portrait for worship. When news arrived, the court was shaken with grief and suspended audience for three days. He was posthumously made Grand Tutor, given the posthumous name Wenzheng, enshrined in the Manifest Loyalty and Worthy Officials shrines in the capital, and dedicated shrines were built in each province. His son Zeng Jize succeeded to the title, rose to Vice Minister, and has his own biography;
26
The commentator says: Zeng Guofan's achievements rested on learning, and he was skilled in moving affairs through ritual. His heart of public sincerity was especially able to win men over. In military and civil administration he strove for what was solid and practical. Whatever he planned for the empire was eventually vindicated; the age praised him, comparing him to Zhuge Liang of Han, Pei Du of Tang, and Wang Yangming of Ming—how grand his reputation! Zeng Guofan also chose thirty-three sages and worthies of past and present, made portraits with encomia, and took them as his teachers—the great outlines of his lifelong aspirations are fully seen in this. Once his fame was secure, he eagerly made recommending talent his chief task; frontier governors and commanders throughout the realm were largely his protégés. In serving the throne through the men he chose, none betrayed the trust he had placed in them. Alas! Since the restoration, there has been only this one man.