More than 100 years after the death of Zuo Zongtang, who dedicated his whole life, what will happen to his descendants now?

Zuo Zongtang, a native of Xiangyin, Hunan, was an important minister in the late Qing Dynasty. Together with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zhang Zhidong, he was known as one of the "four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty and the Zhongxing Dynasty". Zuo Zongtang studied at Chengnan Academy in Changsha. He passed the provincial examination at the age of 20, but thereafter he failed repeatedly in the joint examination. Zuo Zongtang read many books, studied geography and military tactics, and experienced important historical events such as the Hunan Army's pacification of the Taiping Rebellion, the Westernization Movement, the suppression of the Shaanxi-Gansu Tongzhi rebellion, and the recovery of Xinjiang. Worrying about the world, his achievements are unparalleled; his heroic spirit will make him look up to him for the rest of his life.

In the autumn of the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), the French navy raided Keelung, Taiwan, and Mawei, Fuzhou, China, and the Sino-French War began. The seventy-two-year-old Zuo Zongtang dragged his frail body and stationed in Fuzhou to deploy military defenses. Therefore, the French army's conspiracy could not succeed. However, the Qing government was weak and incompetent and blindly sued for peace. On September 5 of the following year, Zuo Zongtang left He passed away with his last words, "I can't rest my eyes with a grudge for the rest of my life."

Not only did Zuo Zongtang himself have outstanding achievements, but his descendants also produced talents in large numbers. Zuo Zongtang had four sons and four daughters. When he died, his tenth grandson had already been born. Now Zuo Zongtang’s descendants have reached the seventh generation and are prosperous. Most of Zuo Zongtang's descendants live in Changsha. Over the past dynasties, many pillars of the country have emerged, including literati, doctors, teachers, and hundreds of experts and academicians, which is impressive.

Zuo Zongtang was worried about the world, serving the country and the people, and was away from home all the time, so he had his eldest son Zuo Xiaowei when he was 35 years old. But no matter how busy he was, Zuo Zongtang never forgot the lessons he taught his children. When Zuo Zongtang got married at the age of twenty-three, he wrote a couplet to himself in his new house: "I don't have half an acre, and I worry about the world; I have read thousands of volumes, and I have friends with the ancients." The majestic declaration was an encouragement to himself and a reflection of his life. Thirty years later, in March of the fifth year of Tongzhi, Zuo Zongtang also wrote this couplet when writing a family motto for his children at his residence in Fuzhou. Zuo Zongtang's family tradition was very strict and he required his children to be upright and useful people and not to get into bad habits. If they were found not studying hard, they would be punished corporally by Zuo Zongtang.

Picture: Zuo Jingjian (descendant of Zuo Zongtang)

After witnessing all kinds of ugliness in the officialdom, Zuo Zongtang established the family motto "Studying is not for the sake of academic title". Therefore, not many of his descendants entered the official career, but most of them studied learning and made great achievements. Zuo Zongtang’s fourth-generation great-grandson Zuo Jingjian is a leading expert in surgery, Zuo Jingquan is a famous Sinologist with profound attainments in Dunhuang studies, and Zuo Jingyi is the founder and founder of corrosion and protection in my country; The fifth-generation great-grandson Zuo Huancong is a highly respected famous doctor in the medical field; the sixth-generation Sun Zuojian is a famous biologist...

The descendants of Zuo Gong can be said to be prosperous and have many talents. What is commendable is that They have always maintained their innocence and never disgraced their family name. He is worthy of being the descendant of the last backbone of China in the late Qing Dynasty. It would be gratifying to know that Zuo Gong knows about it!