Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/325

302 of them. From Chihli they passed, in the fourth moon (April 23-May 19), into Shantung, where the swollen rivers prevented the imperialists from capturing them until the seventh moon. Then their leader, Chang Tsung-yu, was taken and the rebellion quelled. Tsêng's memorial announcing the complete crushing of the Nienfei was dated September 8, 1867.

Neither Tsêng nor his brother was as conspicuous now as they had been four years earlier, although as viceroy of the Two Kiang supporting Li Hung-chang the former shared in the honors and rewards. Tseng Kuo-ch'üan, however, was no longer in office. He had become discouraged with the difficulties of the governorship of Hupeh, and his pride would not brook the fire of criticism levelled against him by reason of his lack of success. So he had retired to his native province in October, 1867. In this incident the contrast in character between the two Tsêngs comes out strikingly. The elder brother had many times met with failure and loss of face, only to persevere until he brought victory out of defeat; and in these days of damaged prestige his letters were full of encouragement to the younger man. Thus in April, 1867, when Kuo-ch'üan was at the point of resigning, he tells his brother that the prospect of defeat is something that he himself has endured many times, only to grow the stronger for having passed through the experience. "The two great defeats you have sustained," he writes, "may be Heaven polishing its hero in preparation for a great advance. The proverb says 'By each humiliation you endure, your knowledge is that much enlarged.' My greatest progress has been in the periods when I suffered defeat and shame. Under such circumstances one should grit his teeth, discipline his will, collect his spirit and stretch his wisdom — by no means must he faint and