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Zhang Guoliang

Chinese general (1810–1860)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ6130500 ↗
Source-derived summary

Zhang Guoliang (traditional Chinese: 張國樑; simplified Chinese: 张国梁; pinyin: Zhāng Guóliáng; 1810 – April 1860), born in Guangdong, was a Field Marshal for the Qing dynasty. He was born in Gaoyao, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, although Qing stated that he was from Meixian, Guangdong. He was originally a bandit in Guangxi but later joined the Qing Army. He helped to raise the Green Standard Army to 250,000 to fight against the Taiping Rebellion. In the second rout of Army Group Jiangnan in 1860 he was defeated by Li Xiucheng. Zeng Guofan praised Zhang and said he was Jiangnan's "Great Wall of China."

Life

When the Battle of Nanjing (1853) began, Zhang accepted a SOS order from Nanjing, he and his 15,000 men were the first troops to arrive and save Nanjing. In 1856, Zhang Guoliang led his army in the recovery of Zhenjiang, which had been occupied by Taiping for five years. The Emperor rewarded Zhang with the Imperial yellow jacket and promoted him to First Class Senior General. In April 1860, Zhang was defeated and led his remaining 20,000 soldiers in retreat to Danyang. He left the city on horseback and drowned while trying to escape.

Editorial summary

“Zhang Guoliang” enters the record as chinese general (1810–1860). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Zhang, Guoliang and Chinese can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1810, 1860, 1853, 1856—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1810-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Zhang, Guoliang and Chinese.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Zhang Guoliang” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Zhang, Guoliang and Chinese provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6130500. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1810, 1860, 1853 and 1856.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Zhang Guoliang” 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.