Tso Tsung-t'ang (dzô dzōng-täng) [key], 1812–85, Chinese general
and statesman of the Ch'ing dynasty. He directed (1852–59)
resistance to the Taiping Rebellion in his native Hunan and
later organized (1860) a volunteer corps that fought the
Taipings in Jiangxi and Anhui provs. Appointed governor of
Zhejiang (1862–63) and governor-general of Zhejiang and Fujian
(1863–66), Tso drove the Taipings from those provinces and
planned rehabilitation. He led troops that participated (1868)
in the encirclement and annihilation of the Nian forces (see
Nian Rebellion). As governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu
provs., Tso suppressed (1868–77) the Muslim rebellion on the
northwest frontier. In the struggle for military funds between
those officials who stressed coastal defense (notably Li Hung-
chang) and those who stressed frontier defense, he argued that
Western powers fought for commercial privileges and could be
contained by skillful diplomacy, whereas strong frontier defense
was necessary to forestall Russia's territori