CHAPTER XVI - A FATHER'S ADVICE TO HIS SON

Summary

Some extracts from a Chinese father's letters to his son will probably do more to explain what is thought admirable in a Chinese young man than pages of commentary. The son in this case was the late Marquis Tseng, during many years Chinese Minister in London. The writer was his father, the celebrated Tseng Kuo Fan, in whose honour a temple has been put up at Wuchang opposite Hankow. Grandson of a Hunan farmer, son of a humble scholar, this Chinese Chesterfield passed his first examination at twenty-one; and continuing steadily to pass examinations, he was a Hanlin student at twenty-eight, Chief Examiner for the Province of Szechuan at thirty-two, Deputy-Supervisor of Instruction in Peking, and nominally in charge of the education of the future Emperor at thirty-four. During the Taiping rebellion he had to become a General; and it was during all the troubles of this rebellion his letters were written. It was his devoted brother, then a Viceroy, who published the Life and Writings of Tseng Kuo Fan.