Zeng Guofan
Chinese politician and military commander (1811–1872)

Zeng Guofan, Marquis Yiyong, birth name Zeng Zicheng, courtesy name Bohan (伯涵), was a Chinese statesman and military general of the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for raising and organizing the Xiang Army to aid the Qing military in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion and restoring the stability of the Qing Empire. Along with other prominent figures such as Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang of his time, Zeng set the scene for the Tongzhi Restoration, an attempt to arrest the decline of the Qing dynasty. Zeng was known for his strategic perception, administrative skill and noble personality on Confucian practice, but also for his ruthlessness in repressing rebellions.
The public source identifies “Zeng Guofan” as chinese politician and military commander (1811–1872). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Zeng, Guofan and Chinese.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zeng Guofan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.