in the Grand Council and in the Tsungli Yamen, with the honor of being permitted to ride horseback inside the Forbidden City. But his long years of isolation on the wind-swept plains of Central Asia and his honesty and outspokenness made it difficult for him to fit into the ways of an effete officialdom. He did not feel at home in Peking, and his colleagues felt uneasy in his presence. After taking a month's sick leave in the autumn (1881) he was on October 28 appointed governor-general of Kiangnan and Kiangsi. He assumed his new post on February 12, 1882, after a visit to his native place in Hunan. By the end of the year he was a tired and sick man and had lost the use of his left eye. He begged leave to retire, but in deference to his fame and his position his wish could not be granted. He was given instead three months' leave. In the fall of 1883 he was called to quell an uprising in southern Shantung and before long he had the situation in hand. When trouble with the French over Annam became acute he was once more summoned to Peking. He reached the capital in June 1884 and was put in charge of all military affairs of the Empire. By August conflict with the French along the coast of Fukien became serious (see under Chang P'ei-lun) and Tso was appointed high commissioner of that province. In September 1884 he left the capital, and in December reached Foochow which he had left some twenty years previously. Before long a settlement with France seemed imminent and negotiations were resumed in the spring of 1885. On June 9 a treaty was signed by Li Hung-chang. On September 5 Tso Tsung-t'ang died in Foochow, age seventy-four (sui). He was granted all appropriate posthumous honors and was canonised as Wên-hsiang 文襄.
As in the case of most great characters of history, many anecdotes, usually exaggerated and sometimes without foundation, are told about Tso Tsung-t'ang. Some of these relate to alleged misunderstandings between himself and Tsêng Kuo-fan. It is clear that these two great heroes—natives though they were of the same province—were not good friends. They differed much in tastes, temper, and other characteristics, and their estrangement seems to have grown deeper as the years passed. Nevertheless, they had great respect for each other and they never permitted their differences to degenerate into a feud. Another point frequently mentioned, and as often over-emphasized, is the assertion that Tso in suppressing the Mohammedan uprising resorted to unnecessary cruelty and wholesale slaughter of the native population. That there was much killing is certainly true, but it does not follow that Tso himself was a cruel man. Though he was strict he was fair, and when the conflict ended he did what he could to rehabilitate the devastated areas. The great highway in Kansu, lined on both sides with willow trees, still stands as a testimony to his concern to make the land fairer and more habitable.
Tso Tsung-t'ang had four sons: Tso Hsiao-wei 左孝威 (T. 子重, 1846–1873, chü-jên of 1862), Tso Hsiao-k'uan 左孝寬 (b. 1847), Tso Hsiao-hsün 左孝勛 (b. 1853), and Tso Hsiao-t'ung 左孝同 (T. 子異, H. 逸叟, 1857–1924). A son of Tso Hsiao-wei, named Tso Nien-ch'ien 左念謙 (d. 1892), inherited the rank of marquis.
The complete works of Tso Tsung-t'ang, comprising 134 chüan, are entitled 左文襄公全集 Tso Wên-hsiang kung ch'üan-chi. They include 64 chüan of memorials, 26 chüan of letters and dispatches, 7 chüan of literary works, 12 chüan of other official papers, 10 chüan of memorials drafted for Lo Ping-chang, 4 chüan of memorials drafted for Chang Liang-chi, 1 chüan of table-of-contents, and 10 chüan consisting of a chronological biography of Tso written by Lo Chêng-chün (see under Wang Fu-chih), under the title Tso Wên-hsiang kung nien-p'u. The collection as a whole was printed in 1888–97. A small collection of his essays, entitled 盾鼻餘瀋 Tun-pi yü-shên (68 double pages), was printed at Sian, Shensi, in the spring of 1881, and was reprinted in Peking in June of the same year. The Library of Congress possesses a copy which includes additional essays written as late as 1884 (106 double pages).
[1/418/1a; 2/51/34b; 5/6/3a; (Ch'in-ting) Chiao-p'ing nien-fei fang-lüeh (see under I-hsin); Wei Kuang-tao, 戡定新疆記 K'an-ting Hsin-chiang chi (1899); Tsêng Wên-wu 曾問吾, 中國經營西域史 Chung-kuo ching-ying hsi-yü shih (1936); Bales, W. L., Tso Tsung-t'ang, Soldier and Statesman of Old China (1937); Boulger, D. C., The Life of Yakoob Beg (1878); Piassetsky, P., Russian Travellers in Mongolia and China, vol. II (1884); Wang Hsien-ch'ien (see under Chiang Liang-ch'i), 虛受堂文集 Hsü-shou t'ang wên-chi, 11/7a.]
TSOU Han-hsün 鄒漢勖 (T. 叔績, 績父), Dec. 11, 1805–1854, Jan. 15, scholar and geographer, was a native of Hsin-hua, Hunan, who
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