Xiang Rong

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Xiang Rong" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Xiang Rong (Chinese: 向榮; 1801 – 9 August 1856) was a Chinese military general and politician. He was born in Wuxi County, Chongqing, and was promoted from the rank of a foot soldier during the later years of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). He was involved in early military operations against the Taiping Rebellion in Henan from 1850 onwards. From then he was a Senior Colonel, after one year the military promoted him be the tidu (提督) of Guangxi, even though he failed, he made the Taiping believers flee Guangxi.

Continuing after Guangxi, Xiang Rong never gave up and tracked the Taiping rebels across three province to Jiangnan in southern China.^[1] His Jiangnan Battalion (part of the Green Standard Army) was constantly defeated by the Taiping rebel army outside Nanjing. The Taiping rebel army broke through his various encirclements and occupied Wuhan and Nanjing, giving rise to a huge civil war.

Death[edit]

He and his vice commander Zhang Guoliang commanded a 90,000 man force together from April 1853.

In 1856, Xiang Rong's army fought against Qin Rigang for one month and was defeated by Qin Rigang's militia, Xiang Rong was wounded and died after several days in Danyang City.

References[edit]

• Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "Hsiang Jung" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.