Tsêng Kuo-fan and the Taiping Rebellion with a Short Sketch of His Later Career

This Book is in Good Condition. No Dust Jacket, apparently as issued. The Hardcover Boards have Fading to the Spine, Very Light Rubbing to the Edges, and Light Soiling but retain Sharp Corners with No Tears, Creases, Stains, or Other Major Damage. The Binding is Strong and Intact. The Interior is Clean and Unmarked with No Writing, Highlighting, or Underlining and with No Tears, Creases, Stains, Mold, or Any Major Damage. The Page Edges have No Remainder Mark, Foxing, Stains, or Any Major Damage.

Book Description

Tsêng Kuo-fan and the Taiping Rebellion with a Short Sketch of His Later Career by William James Hail with a foreword by F. W. Williams, published by Paragon Book Reprint Corp. in 1964, a reprint of the 1927 Yale University Press, Yale Historical Publications Miscellany XVIII first edition. This Book is a Hardcover (No Dust Jacket, apparently as issued) measuring 5.875" x 8.875" with xviii+422 pages.

Many careful observers of world events believe that no calamity of the nineteenth century approached the Taiping Rebellion in the total of misery and destruction. Several hundred district cities were taken and retaken, with looting and slaughter on both sides. Great cities became wildernesses; fruitful fields became deserts. Sanguinary battles and still more bloody massacres marked its progress. It threatened disruption and downfall to the Qing Dynasty. That it was allowed to spread so far and wide was due to Chinese decentralization and official incompetence; that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not win was due to their lack of leadership from 1853 to 1858, and to the emergence of Tsêng Kuo-fan (spelled today as Zeng Guofan). Chinese modern history awards this man the honor that is his due, but foreign observers were so dazzled by the fame of the valuable little force of foreign-trained soldiers organized by Frederick Townsend Ward and eventually led by Charles George ""Chinese"" Gordon, and relegated the real hero of the Taiping Rebellion to oblivion. Seldom has a greater injustice been done than that which filched from Tsêng Kuo-fan his dearly earned fame and enshrined Gordon and Li Hung-chang (Li Hongzhang) in the temple of history. Against difficulties woven together out of the practices of Chinese government for centuries; with far too little cooperation, lacking funds to secure armies, and without any military training, Tsêng eventually performed the miracle of suppressing the Rebellion.