Zeng Guofan to his brother

Author: Zhong Shuhe selected and compiled
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-03-01
Features: Letters from Zeng Guofan to his brothers, totaling 292 pieces (including 484 pieces with summaries and appendices), primarily focusing on exchanging experiences in politics, military affairs, society, and learning. These are private conversations of a political figure. The book extensively discusses the tactics and strategies of autocratic politics, comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince, and can be called the General and Minister's Manual of ancient China. This book collects 484 letters in total (292 listed and 192 appended). These letters, like Teaching the Son, are selected excerpts rather than complete collections of Zeng's family letters. There are many family letters by Zeng, and historians should read all of them, but ordinary readers do not necessarily need to. Some letters are important in content or interesting in writing, but they can be appropriately excerpted to save space. Pre-1949 editions of Zeng's family letters were published in a similar manner. However, the original editions used by common editions were intentionally excluded for political, social reasons, or to respect the names of relatives. This book pays special attention to including such letters and keeps them as unedited as possible. Fortunately, complete collections of Zeng's family letters and old editions are now available. If readers are interested, they may compare different editions and take what they need. For those researching Zeng Guofan or late Qing history, or when citing in academic papers, it is still necessary to consult the complete collection of Zeng's family letters. This is the necessary explanation.