Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/349

326 high office at a comparatively youthful age, in many instances without having gone through the intermediate steps. Tsêng himself never held any provincial office in the regular way until he was appointed viceroy of the Two Kiang. His brother, Kuo-ch'üan, although he held titular rank in the lower levels, actually commenced his civil career as governor. Li Hung-chang, Tso Tsung-tang, and P'eng Yu-ling similarly moved into the higher ranks with little or no actual service in the minor civil offices. These were extraordinary steps for so conservative a government as that of China to take. By thus radically breaking red tape for Tsêng and his appointees, China was borne far from its old moorings, and in political as well as other matters Tsêng proved himself liberal if not radical, where changes did not involve departures from the inner genius of his race.

His death occurred suddenly in March, 1872, during his period of rest following the daily after-dinner walk in his garden. It was not wholly unexpected, however, for there had been a number of preliminary warnings, one of them a few days before his death, when he went out to the riverside to meet a distinguished visitor and fainted in his sedan chair on the way. It was a great loss, deeply felt by the people of Nanking and by those who recognised the importance of his work throughout China. For three days the imperial audiences were suspended in his honor. The mandate issued on this occasion may well summarise the Chinese feeling towards him, because it expresses what in his case were no mere polite platitudes:

Tsêng Kuo-fan, Grand Secretary and Viceroy of the Two Kiang, was thoroughly learned, wide and deep in ability, loyal and sincere by natural disposition and upright in conduct.