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Americans and Macao: Trade, Smuggling and Diplomacy on the South China Coast

Each side in this conflict had its major figure: on the Taiping side, Hong Rengan, personable, even charismatic, who impressed almost every foreigner who came into contact with him and who had helped James Legge with his translations of the Chinese Classics, and on the Imperial side, Zeng Guofan, confucian scholar and ruthless commander of the Hunan Army. These two products of the Chinese system presided over a war that, over its ten-year length, caused, in one way or another, deaths on a cataclysmic scale; conservative estimates vary between 20 and 30 million, so that it was 1915 before the population of China regained its pre-1850 size. For Zeng Guofan, slaughter was a matter of policy and he was known as ‘ Butcher Zeng’ (Zeng tuhu). Stephen Platt has looked at his personal correspondence and was struck by the apparent contradiction between the ruthless commander and the sensitive confucian scholar. In truth, there is perhaps less contradiction than he thinks. Confucius’s remarks about Guan Zhong, a man of similar stature, attributes and political and military abilities, suggest that, where necessary, military ability may trump virtue of character.