The Shaanxi Baoji Bronze Museum has a pair of Zuo Zongtang's couplets, "The green mountains on the river are like whittled iron, and the bright moon is floating in the water." The couplets are original mounted, ink on paper, on vertical scroll. The first couplet has "Summer and April in the fifth year of Guangxu", and the second couplet has the inscription "Zuo Zongtang" and the seal of "Graduate Scholar Seal". Basically well preserved. This was written in April of the previous year when Zuo Zongtang, an important military and political minister of the late Qing Dynasty, decided in the spring of the sixth year of Guangxu's reign to march into Yili in three directions and carry a coffin out of Guanxi to show a decisive battle with Tsarist Russia, and left it in the northwest. This speech shows the mind of Zuo Zongtang, a famous minister of his generation.
Zuo Zongtang was an important military and political minister in the late Qing Dynasty and an important leader of the Westernization movement. He was enlightened by nature and never had great ambitions. When he was 5 years old, he went to Changsha, the provincial capital, to study with his father. The famous works with such contents were regarded as treasures, which played a great role in his later leading troops in war, government administration and financial management. Lin Zexu, who was famous all over the world, thought highly of Zuo Zongtang. The two had long conversations all night long in Changsha, and they had the same views on the fundamental plans for governing the country, especially on the military affairs of the northwest. Lin Zexu determined that in the future "Western Xinjiang would be determined" and he would be none other than Zuojun, so he specially handed over all the valuable information he had compiled in Xinjiang to Zuo Zongtang. Later, Lin Zexu talked about this meeting with others many times, praising Zuo Zongtang as an "extraordinary talent" and "unparalleled genius". Before his death, he ordered his second son to write his will, and repeatedly recommended Zuo Zongtang as a rare talent. .
Since 1862 (the first year of Tongzhi), Zuo Zongtang has successively served as governor of Zhejiang, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau were successively established. In July 1871, Tsarist Russian armed forces occupied Ili; in 1874, Japan invaded Taiwan. Under this situation, a dispute broke out within the Qing court between "coastal defense" and "fortress defense." Li Hongzhang and others believed that it was "difficult to balance the two" and advocated abandoning fortification defense and "sustaining and withdrawing funds, that is, dividing them into coastal defense rates." ". Zuo Zongtang was a defender, and he strongly expressed his dissent, pointing out that "if we withdraw the fence in the northwest, we will retreat even an inch and the invaders will advance", which in particular would lead to British and Russian infiltration. Wen Xiang, the Minister of Military and Aircraft at that time, was convinced by Zuo Zongtang and fully supported him. So Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict to appoint Zuo Zongtang as the Imperial Envoy, with full power to control the three armies. General Jin Shun was appointed as deputy commander to choose the opportunity to go to the fortress to quell the rebellion in Xinjiang. In May of the same year, at the age of 64, Zuo Zongtang was appointed as the Imperial Envoy. He supervised the military affairs of Xinjiang, commanded the Western Expedition, conquered eight cities in southern Xinjiang occupied by foreign invaders, and recovered all the territory of Xinjiang except Ili. Zuo Zongtang immediately proposed to Xinjiang that Xinjiang should be transformed into a province to achieve long-term peace and stability. During the Sino-Russian negotiations in Ili in 1879, they criticized Hou Hou's behavior of advocating Russia's demands, rashly agreeing on treaties, and losing power and land. In the spring of the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), Zuo Zongtang decided to march into Yili in three directions, carrying coffins out of Guanxi to show his decisive battle with Tsarist Russia. In early 1881, the "Ili Treaty" between China and Russia was signed, and China took back the territory on both sides of Ili and the upper reaches of the Tekes River (the area west of the Horgos River and the area east of Zaisang Lake in the north were forcibly cut off by Tsarist Russia). Zuo Zongtang is famous in history for his great achievements in recovering Xinjiang. His achievements remain to this day.
In August 1983, General Wang Zhen invited Zuo Zongtang’s great-grandson Zuo Jingyi to his home and discussed his evaluation of Zuo Zongtang in detail. "Under the historical circumstances of the imperialist carving up of China, Zuo Zongtang stood up to the criticism of the capitulationists and resolutely led his troops in the western expedition to regain Xinjiang, which was in line with the long-term interests of the Chinese nation and was an expression of patriotism. Zuo Gong's patriotism spirit, It is worthy of being carried forward by our descendants.” "At the beginning of liberation, the route I took to march into Xinjiang was the same route Zuogong took during his Western Expedition. On that road, I also saw the 'Zuogong Willow' planted back then. Walking that road was very difficult. As you can imagine, Zuo Gong It would be even more difficult to take that road. Zuo Zongtang’s westward expedition was meritorious, otherwise it would be difficult to imagine the great rivers and mountains in the northwest of the motherland.”
As a military general, Zuo Zongtang was also good at calligraphy. , advocating the stele version, good at seal script, official script, running script, and cursive script, strong penmanship, bold style, many couplets have been circulated, and were loved by people at the time. It is said that he has been interested in calligraphy since he was 12 years old. His calligraphy style is calm and exciting, his diction is fluent, his lean writing style, sharp knots and sparse layout vaguely reveal a kind of smug and ambitious spirit. Commenting on his calligraphy, recent people said: "Wen Xianggong's calligraphy was produced by Qing officials (Yan Zhenqing) and sincerely (Liu Gongquan). The North Stele was also written at the tip of the pen, so it stands solemnly and vigorously.
"Zuo Gong moved to the northwest in his later years. According to the "Fufeng County Chronicle", on January 23, the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), Zhang Luoxing of the Nian Army led 300,000 people across the Wei River and entered the county. They stationed troops in Qishan and Fufeng, and camped for more than 50 people. On the fourth day of May, the Nian army fought with Zuo Zongtang and Liu Songshan of the Qing army between the Jing and Weishui rivers, and was surrounded by Zuo Zongtang in Zhaogong. A precious memory written during this period and left to the people of the northwest.