His American fellow students replied: 'we expect to hear about your great cause in the near future of China. We wish you return to your motherland to find it already liberated into a sacred republic and that you will rejoice in the victory of overthrowing the despotic regime.'
To this day, Yale is proud of Rong Hong, whose photo greets countless visitors to one of the Yale buildings.
As the first Chinese graduate from a prestigious American university, Rong Hong attracted great attention. He returned China in 1854 bearing the great ideal conceived at Yale, which he would finally realize. He designed and implemented the first official overseas student project in Chinese history. Encouraged by him, over 20 students later entered Yale. What Rong Hong did not expect, however, was that he had to wait 18 years for that day.
In 1854, Rong Hong returned to China to find her swept by the revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the nation was overshadowed by the cruelty and carnage of war.
“The thousand terrors that impacted on my eyes each day gnaw at my heart at night, keeping me from food and sleep. I began to wish that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would bring a brand new world.”
By the end of 1860, with the help of two missionaries, Rong Hong visited the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Nanjing.
“I wanted to get know the leaders of the Taiping Army, and to learn about their motivations and ideals. Were they eligible to create a new world to replace the Manchu government?”
Rong Hong suggested to the Taiping Army that they should establish military institutions and recruit talented people. But his advocacy was only rewarded with a fourth class baron title endowed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leaders. Disheartened, Rong Hong left them. He realized that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fell far short of his ideal.
After he returned to China, Rong Hong studied law in Hong Kong and worked as a translator at the Shanghai Customs Office. He said he was searching in his various jobs for opportunities to get to know people in power who would help him to achieve his dream.
“Another three years passed. An opportunity arrived. Someone from Anhui told me that Zeng Guofan wanted to see me in Anqing.”
Rong Hong would meet a key personage who would later facilitate his overseas student project.
It turned out that two close friends of Rong Hong had tried their best to recommend him to the Viceroy of Liangjiang, Zeng Guofan. In the fall of 1863, Rong Hong met Zeng Guofan in his Anqing barracks.
“The Viceroy sat there smiling at me, without a single word. This lasted for a few minutes. His penetrating eyes examined me from head to toe”
It seemed the General of the Xiang Army felt a consuming curiosity about Rong Hong who had spent many years abroad studying. Zeng Guofan was among the first to wake up to the crisis of China being isolated and surpassed by the rest of the world. In a chronicle edited by Zeng's daughter there is a special picture in which Zeng Guofan sits in an old armchair, looking over his son and daughter while pointing to a huge globe. This must be a unique scene in the life of a high-ranking official at the time. It tells not only of Zeng's conscientious tutelage but also of his attempt to achieve an international perspective.
Soon Zeng Guofan asked to see Rong Hong again. He wasted no time in entering the subject. He asked Rong what would be the most immediately beneficial course for China to follow. Rong Hong, already informed of Zeng’s plan to import machinery from abroad, put aside his education project (temporarily). He suggested that China must first found a 'mother factory' to produce equipment. Zeng Guofan entrusted Rong Hong with procuring machinery abroad. In 1864, Rong Hong returned to the U.S. Though still uncertain about how to realize his dream, he felt that this journey would lead him to it.
Editor:Ge Ting
