Zeng Guofan (November 26, 1811 - March 20, 1872) was originally named Zicheng, the character Bohan, the name Disheng, and the posthumous Wenzheng. He was a native of Xiangxiang Township, Changsha Province, Hunan Province (now Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province). A military strategist, theoretician, politician, calligrapher during the Qing Dynasty of China, one of the "famous ministers of Zhongxing", and also a writer. He was the founder of the "Xiangxiang School" of prose in the late Qing Dynasty. Guan Zhi was the governor of Liangjiang, the governor of Zhili, the master of Wu Ying Temple, and the first-class Yiyong Marquis. He was from Baiyangping, Xiangxiang Township, Changsha Province, Hunan Province, and now belongs to Tianziping, Heye Town

Zeng Guofan was born in the 16th year of Jiaqing (1811) in a wealthy landlord family in Heyetang, Jingzi Town, Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province. Nine brothers and sisters, Zeng Guofan for the eldest son. The ancestors were mainly farmers and lived a better life. Although his grandfather Zeng Yuping was less educated, he had rich experience; his father Zeng Linshu was a scholar, and Zeng Guofan, the eldest son, naturally received the ethical education of his two ancestors.

At the age of 6, Zeng Guofan entered the school to study. At the age of 8, he could read eight-strand essays and recite the Five Classics. At the age of 14, he could read the anthologies of Zhou Li and Historical Records. He participated in the children's examination in Changsha, and his grades were listed as excellent. It can be seen that he was talented and diligent since childhood. In the 12th year of Daoguang (1832), he was admitted to the scholar and married the daughter of Ouyang Cangming.

Zeng Guofan was admitted as a jinshi at the age of 28. Since then, he has embarked on the road of official career step by step, and has become a proud protégé of Mu Zhanga, Minister of Military Aircraft. In Beijing for more than ten years, he has successively served as a Jishi of the Hanlin Academy, and he has worked as a attendant, a bachelor, a minister of coursework, a minister of Wenyuan Pavilion, a cabinet bachelor, an inspector of Chinese library affairs, a attendant of the ceremony department and a attendant of the military department, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Penalty, and the Ministry of Officials. Zeng Guofan has been promoted to the second-rank official position step by step along this path of official career. In ten years, he has been promoted seven times, and he has jumped ten levels in a row

Zeng Guofan's life was inseparable from the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), Zeng Guofan was at home due to his mother's death. At this time, the Taiping Rebellion had swept across half of China. Although the Qing government mobilized a large number of Eight Banners and Green Battalion officers and soldiers from all over the country to deal with the Taiping Army, this decadent armed force was vulnerable to a single blow. Therefore, the Qing government repeatedly issued orders to reward regiment training, striving to use the landlord armed forces in various places to curb the development of revolutionary forces. This provided an opportunity for the emergence of Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army. In the third year of Xianfeng (1853), taking advantage of the opportunity given by the Qing government to seek strength to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, he relied on complex interpersonal relationships such as apprentices, relatives, and friends in his hometown of Hunan to establish a local regiment called the Hunan Army. Zeng Guofan brutally suppressed the Taiping Rebellion and used harsh punishments. History says that "one person was sent to know the state, and one person was instructed to judge the bandits. When the resolution was serious, the decision was taken, the light was killed, and when the light was light, the whip was hundreds of thousands of people... The case reaches instant information and testimony, the rectification is immediately corrected, and there is no delay in expectation." Not only did he directly kill people, but his father and fourth brother also killed people. That is, some people accused him of killing too much, and called him "Zeng Toutou" or "Zeng Butcher." It is said that children in Nanjing cried at night, but their mother said,"Zeng has come to shave her head," and the children stopped crying. During the battle against the Taiping Army, Zeng Guofan used methods of looting property, awarding officials and awarding titles to boost morale, and developed the Hunan Army's fierce and helpless nature. Among the Qing Dynasty armed forces with backward military quality, the Hunan Army became one of the main forces in southern China fighting against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom military forces. Zeng Guofan was granted the title of first-class brave and upright Marquis, becoming the first person to be granted the title of Marquis Wu as a literati in the Qing Dynasty. Later, he served successively as Governor of Liangjiang and Governor of Zhili, and lived in a first-class official position. Zeng Guofan wrote many books in his life, but his "Letter from Home" was the most widely circulated and influential. In the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), that is, seven years after Zeng Guofan's death, Chuanzhong Publishing Company printed the "Zeng Wenzheng Official Book" compiled and collated by Li Hanzhang and Li Hongzhang.

Zeng Guofan himself was also good at using talents, and some other famous ministers of the Qing Dynasty, such as General Tso and Li Hongzhang, were closely related to him. General Tso and Li Hongzhang called Zeng Guofan teachers. Zeng Guofan once said, "Li Shaoquan tried his best to be an official, and Yu Yinfu (Yu Yue) tried his best to write a book."

After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping Army joined the Nian army in the rest of Jiangbei, and the Qing court ordered Zeng Guofan to supervise the military affairs of Zhili, Shandong and Henan provinces. Zeng Guofan led the Hunan army of 20,000 and the Huai army of 60,000, equipped with foreign guns and foreign cannons, and went north to "suppress the twist". His policy was "re-face the suppression, not heavy tail pursuit", and put forward plans such as "key defense", in a vain attempt to block the Nian army in the canal and Shahe area, so that the Nian army had nowhere to escape, and then eliminated it. But the Nian army broke through Zeng Guofan's defense line and entered Shandong, causing Zeng Guofan's strategic plans to go bankrupt. Zeng Guofan was dismissed and replaced by Li Hongzhang.

In the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), Zeng Guofan, who was serving as the governor of Zhili, was ordered to go to Tianjin to handle the Tianjin teaching plan. On June 21, 1870, thousands of people in Tianjin gathered in front of the French Catholic Church on suspicion that the Catholic Church used the nursery hall as a way to kidnap people and kill babies. The French consul, Feng Daye, believed that the authorities did not press seriously. He encountered Liu Jie, the prefect of Tianjin, on the street with a gun. He opened fire due to a dispute and killed one of Liu Jie's servants on the spot. Under the anger of the people, he first killed the French consul in Tianjin, Feng Daye, and his secretary, Ximen. Then he killed 10 nuns, 2 priests, 2 other French consular personnel, 2 French expatriates, 3 Russian expatriates, and more than 30 Chinese believers. He burned down the French consulate, Wanghailou Cathedral, and 4 Christian churches run by local British and American missionaries. After the incident, Britain, the United States, France and other countries jointly protested and dispatched warships. After Zeng Guofan arrived in Tianjin, considering the situation at the time, he was unwilling to go to war with France, "but the success of the peace bureau is quick, regardless of whether one of the love crimes should be done or not". At the request of France, he negotiated and decided to finally execute the 18 people who were the leaders of the murder, exile 25 people, and send the Tianjin prefect Zhang Guangzao and the prefect Liu Jie to Heilongjiang, compensate the foreigners for the loss 460,000 two silver, and send a mission to France by Chonghou to apologize. As a result of this negotiation, the people in the court and public opinion were very dissatisfied, which greatly affected Zeng Guofan's reputation and caused the rebuke of the whole country. Even his Hunan fellow villagers smashed and burned the plaque where he boasted of his reputation in the Huguang Guild Hall.

On the fourth day of February of the eleventh year of Tongzhi (Gregorian calendar: March 20, 1872), he died of illness in Nanjing. The court presented it to Taifu, and after his death, he was posthumously named "Wen Zheng." Most of his family's descendants have officials, such as Zeng Jize.

Comment: A famous minister of Zhongxing in the late Qing Dynasty with mixed reviews throughout his life.