Zongtang Zuo Military Thought Research

Military thought is the rational knowledge of war, military and basic defense issues and also the experience and national summary from men's long-term military practice. It has been developing with the evolution of the human form of war. The production and development process of China's modern military thought changes with the old and new changes, and the combination of Chinese and western cultures, which reflects the military thoughts of modern China's feudal ruling class, the peasant class, and bourgeoisie. It is a transitional military thought form. After 1984, the western economy and culture and military techonology invaded China, the firearms gradually eliminated the cold weapon, the modern military industry and navy were gradually established, and Chinese society witnessed the great changes, which made traditional strategics influenced by the shock and chanllege from the western military thoughts. China's modern militray thoughts were preluded.Zongtang Zuo(1812-1885), name Gao Ji, from XiangYin, Hunan Province. He was the minister of military and politics in the late Qing Dynasty, one of the leaders in Hunan Army, the important representative of Westernization Group. When Zongtang Zuo was young, he read a lot of literature. After Taiping forces started armed struggle, he screened to the two terms of Hunan governors, LiangJi Zhang and BingZhang Luo. He participated in the army, starting his military career. Then he organised the Chu Army, leading the Hunan Army to fight south and east and kill the Taiping forces. He also opened the Fukien Dockyard and took back Xinjiang. Zongtang Zuo served in the army for his whole life, because he involved in the war for a very long time, his military thought gradually became mature, which played a very important role in the China's modern military thoughts. His military thought both absorbed and developed Chinese traditional theory of strategy and tactics, inherited and carried forward Yuan Wei's thought, "Learn from the advanced technologies in the West and resist the invasion of the Western powers.". He insisted the importance of both coast and border defense, devised strategies within a command tent to supervise XinJiang, which brought profound influence to the later generations.This paper discusses Zongtang Zuo's military intellectual foundations, strategies, military hardware, training thought, national defense strategy and logistic guarantee. The introduction systematically untangles the history and status quo of Zongtang Zuo's research. It is divided into three phases, the first phase begins from the late Qing Dynasty to Republican period, the second phase from the establishment of PRC to the period before China's reform and opening up, the third phase from the period of China's reform and opening up. The research systematically summarizes the main achievements of different periods, especially the characteristics of the military thought; grasps the status quo; lays a solid foundation based on the past and present research.Chapter One analyzes the historical origins of his thoughts mainly from the background, historical tradition and military practice. Zongtang Zuo's life time was the period from ancient to modern times, and also from a feudal society into a period of semi-feudal society, which were the turbulent, dramatic times in Chinese history. Because Zongtang destined to save the country, he was a person who introduced the western mechanics and military technology in the transitional period of China's modern times. Finally he became one of the first practitioners in the Westernization Movement of the late Qing dynasty. His military thought can be treated as the outcome from the particular time. Meanwhile, as a traditional reader, he was greatly influenced by the traditional politics, which includes cultural and military achievements and traditional history. Practice greatly brought his cognition. After Zongtang put down Taiping forces, opened the Fukien Dockyard and took back Xinjiang, his military thought gradually became mature.The second chapter elaborates the defense idea of Zongtang Zuo. When facing dual new threats both in coast and frontier defense, he went through the debate over the coast and frontier defense, equivalent to a great discussion on national defense theory, with Hongzhang Li, who was the governor and northern minister of Zhili, and Wenshao Wang, who was the governor of Hunan. He objected either Li's coast defense theory or frontier defense theory, instead, clearly proposed the significance of both coast defense and frontier defense. His proposal put the theory originated from Zexu Lin and Yuan Wei into practice. Meanwhile, he positively coordinated with diplomatic fights and recovered Yili. On account of the mercenary army in late Qing Dynasty, he adopted the policy of alternating weakness with severity step by step and gradually dissolved the mercenary army.The third chapter consists of Zongtang's thought of army building and army running. In the manpower issue, Zongtang proposed human source must be broad in the choice of generals, and the system was slightly different from ZengHuxiang Army. Infantry, navy, caravan, cavalry and artillery compiled in the army were the prototype of the modern military establishment. They conformed to the change of the weapons from cold to hot, which was a major development in Qing Army. The strict disciplines, to punish the old brothers in the army, sustained the stability of the military which was beyond the reach of Guofan Zeng.The fourth chapter teases apart Zongtang Zuo's art of war with strategy and tactics. That is to take the whole situation into accounts and plan accordingly; confirm the appropriate strategic attacking direction; pay equal attention to suppression and caresses with the courage of "conquering everything without any fear" and hold firmly the initiative of the war; promote the offensive defense proposal of turning from the guest to the host and operational policy of being slow into nasty war, which are flexible to know yourself as well as the enemy. The fifth chapter focuses on the analysis of Zongtang Zuo's understanding of modern gun boats. He praised highly the view of Yuan Wei "Learning from the advanced technologies in the West in order to resist the invasion of the western powers.", and advocated self-production of gun boats by self-improvement. He set up Foochow Dorkyard and initiated northwest military industry. When advocated importing and learning western advanced hardware and scientific technologies, he emphasized the purpose of sticking to self-independence and highlighting self-defense against enemy, which embodies the comprehensiveness of the construction of military hardware. Compared to Guofan Zeng and Hongzhang Li, he comprehended much more systematically on the knowledge of modern weapons without any doubt. The sixth chapter mainly discusses Zongtang Zuo's idea and principle on military logistics support. Whatever he did either in the process of suppression of Taiping Army or recovery of Xinjiang, Zongtang Zuo paid great attention to logistics support, including raising money, food and transportation. That fully realized the combination of traditional thought to support military activities with fanning, which favorably guaranteed military battle needs. On the other side, persisting in stationing troops to open up wasteland kept the stabilization in Xinjiang as well.The sixth chapter focuses on the thoughts and principles of the logistics, rates, food and transportation. Zongtang Zuo highly emphasized the logistics no matter in the suppression of Taiping forces and in the Xinjiang recovery. His thoughts enriched the traditional agriculture war and met the needs of campaigning. Settlement defence effectively sustained the stability in Xinjiang.The last part of the essay comments on the military thought of Zongtang Zuo. It gives through interpretation of Zongtang Zuo's status in the history of modern military thought from two main perspectives:the military thinking of Hunan's group commander and the initiation of modern China's military thought based on the traditional Chinese military science, highlighting the characteristics of Zongtang Zuo's military thought. They are the overall consideration of the war but with focuses, the bold and initiative spirit with careful war-planning, insistence of self-exteriors as well as salvation and also the emphasis of the military discipline which can guarantee the combat effectiveness and good civil-army relationship. It clearly points out that Zongtang Zuo's military thought is the basic component of Hunan's group commander spirit. It plays an important role in directing the development of China's modern military thought, which is based on the summary and enrichment of the traditional Chinese military science.