Xiangjunji 湘軍記

Xiangjunji 湘軍記 "Records of the Hunan Army" is a description of the Hunan Army built up to fight the Taiping rebels 太平. It was written by the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Wang Ding'an 王定安 (1833-1898), courtesy name Dingcheng 鼎丞, who hailed from Donghu 東湖 (modern Yichang 宜昌, Hubei) and was an official of the entourage of Zeng Guofan 曾國藩 (1811-1872) and his brother Zeng Guoquan 曾國荃 (1824-1890) and so had a deep personal experience of the history of the wars the Hunan Army was involved in.

The 20-juan long book was compiled because an earlier writing on the Hunan Army, Wang Kaiyun's 王闓運 Xiangjunzhi 湘軍志, had the tendency to criticize the institution of this new type of army. Wang Ding'an's book was intended to stress the importance of the Hunan Army for the surviving of the dynasty, and to add points Wang Kaiyun's book was missing.

It covers the time from 1850, when the Taiping uprising began, to 1887, when Xinjiang 新疆 was incorporated into the empire as a regular province. As a comprehensive history of the Hunan Army, that was the creation of Zeng Guofan, it is at the same time a praise for the general's efforts to support the Qing dynasty. The book is written chronologically, and each chapter describes step by step the advance of the Hunan Army in the efforts to repel the rebels. After the final conquest of the "Heavenly" capital Tianjing 天京 (Nanjing 南京, Jiangsu) it continues with the reconquest of southeastern and southern China and the suppression of the Nian and of the Muslim rebels in the west. The last chapter describes the organisation of the the new army and navy.

The main sources for the Xiangjunji were memorials to the court, as well as private reports of the progress of the war. The literary quality of the Xiangjunji is not as high as that of the Xiangjunzhi, but it is more detailed and historically more reliable than the earlier work. It was first printed in 1889 by the Jiangnan Shuju Press 江南書局, an edition that was republished in 1983 by the Yuelu Shushe Press 岳麓書社 in Changsha, together with the Xiangjunzhi, in the series Xiangjunshi zhuanke 湘軍史專刊.