Zheng Guanying, Merchant Reformer of Late Qing China and his Infl ...

Nanjing and made it their capital, and then they were trapped in devastating battles with the prominent scholar-official and general of the Qing—Zeng Guofan (1811–1872). That same year, the uprising of the Small Sword Society, a secret society of peasants and artisans, disturbed Shanghai and seized Wu Jianzhang. In 1855 the Small Sword Society was jointly suppressed by the Qing government and the Western powers, which rescued Wu and attempted to maintain the existing order of Shanghai. In 1860 the Taipings took Suzhou, the backyard of Shanghai. While the army planned to attack Shanghai, the British and the French again decided to intervene to protect their interests. Wu Xu then helped organize a mercenary army, the Troop with Foreign Guns [Yangqiang dui], later called Ever-Victorious Army [Changsheng jun], to counterattack the Taiping army led by Gen. Li Xiucheng (1823–1864). Li Xiucheng's offensive was neutralized, and he returned to Suzhou. The relative peace in Shanghai attracted a large number of refugees. One assumption suggests that between 1855 and 1865, the population of the international settlement swelled from 20,000 to 90,000.³⁰ In a letter to a colleague in 1862, Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), who was devoted to suppressing the Taiping Rebellion in the Shanghai area, pointed out that “though Shanghai belongs to [Chinese] territory, the hearts of its officials and ordinary people have long gone to the foreigners.”³¹ Li might have exaggerated the situation, but he somewhat described the pro-West social atmosphere of Shanghai.

During this period, Shanghai's urban infrastructure improved. The year 1864 saw the first gas company in China founded in Shanghai. Tap water devices were introduced in 1881, and electricity came one year later. Modern means of communication, telegraph, and telephone were installed in the 1870s.³² It was not coincidental that modern Chinese journalism sprouted in Shanghai, where information flow was faster than in other areas. Rhoads Murphey points out, “The basis of any city, or indeed of any town, with the possible exception of purely religious centers, is access.”³³

The access to a variety of opportunities, information, and channels of expression characterized the experiences of Zheng Guanying and his