The Civilizing and Moralizing Policies of General Zuo Zongtang and His Hu’nan Army after the Post-Incidents Settlement in Northwest China

Abstract: Zuo Zongtang, along with his Hu’nan Army, implemented a series of civilizing and moralizing policies in order to rebuild the social order in Northwest China during the pacifying of Shaanxi-Gansu Incident and recovering of Xinjiang. The balled pamphlet Moralizing the Public by Zhou Han, in seven-character format and with highly approachable diciton, focally thematizes the “reverence of the Confucian ethics and rites” and “harmonization of Hui ethnic minorities and Han people”. The pamphlet, to some extent, reflects General Zuo’s way of governance: “Ruling people with benevolence”. The pamphlet implies that General Zuo had inherited the Neo-Confucianism presented by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, and the school’s Principles, and aimed to shape a common value system and finally to achieve “Yidao Tongfeng”, means the “created unity of moralization and convention” among the borderland and the mainland. In so doing, it would have established the fundamental value orientation for the long-term stability of the Northwest China.