| Abstract |
Both Tzeng Kuo-Fan and Tso Tsung-Tang are major leaders of the Human Army. Tzeng was the eldest son in his family. Owing to his holding chin-shin degree, he had a smooth civil official career. Being most responsible for suppressing the Taiping Rebellion at that time, he was modeled into a Confucian humble, temperate and moral image. Finally, he was granted marquis title as well as the highest posthumous name Wen-Cheng, and revered by historians as the most important leader during the period of Tung-Chih Restoration. However, being the youngest son in his family and been treated most affectionately, Tso preferred to show off like other typical younger sons did in a traditional family. In spite of his higher military exploits in suppressing those rebellions of Taiping in Fujian and Chekiang, West Nien and Northwest Muslims than Tzeng’s, Tso didn’t reach the political apogee because he held chu-jen degree only, not jin-shih. Therefore, he was only given count title and the posthumous name Wen-Hsiang, which seems evidently unfair to him. This paper compares these two figures’ different official career especially from the viewpoint of birth sequence in order to examine the characteristics of the traditional Chinese society. |
