sufficient knowledge of the obstacles overcome, nor do the documents in the T'ientsin settlement itself seem to me to justify his strictures.
As to foreign relations, it is true that Tsêng had not been brought into much contact with Europeans. His early attitude of hostility to them was, however, modified as time went on. His objection to using them in the Chinese armies arose not through anti-foreignism but because he preferred that China should not become entangled in dangerous complications through their employment. He did at times object to the undue extension of foreign trade and methods of communication, but he gave attention to building steamers and, towards the end of his life, advocated the sending of students abroad for study. Some of his letters and memorials show that he kept in touch with foreign politics more closely than the great majority of Chinese officials.
A word may be added on a point which has not been discussed in the body of this book. Was the Manchu Dynasty worth saving? Today Tsêng Kuo-fan does not command the consideration that was once accorded him. The splendid memorial temple erected to him at Changsha has suffered much at the hands of the republican armies which have held the city since 1911 — though a part of the gardens has been yielded to the family for a girls' collegiate school, of which Tsêng's great-granddaughter is principal. In the minds of some, his name has been associated with the Manchu Dynasty, which is anathema. But the memories of Chinese patriots are as short as those of all their kind throughout the world. They ignore the unpalatable but certain fact that the voice of the reformer and revolutionist has carried weight in China only since the end of the nineteenth century, and that Tsêng and his army represented the true will of the nation aroused against the Taiping rebels, who struck
