Tso Much For That

Who was General Tso and why are we eating his chicken?

People love their General Tso's Chicken, a sugary-spicy melange of dark-meat tidbits, deep-fried then fired up with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, scallions and hot chili peppers.

But not one in 10,000 knows who General Tso was, nor what terrible times he lived through, nor the dark massacres that distinguished his belligerent career. As a young man Tso flunked the official court exams three times, a terrible disgrace. He returned home, married and devoted himself to practical studies, like agriculture and geography. He took up silkworm farming and tea farming and chose a gentle lifestyle.

He was 38 when the Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850. For the rest of his life, Tso would wield the sword, becoming one of the most remarkably successful military commanders in Chinese history. General Tso Tsungtang was a frighteningly gifted military leader during the waning of the Qing dynasty. He served with brilliant distinction during China's greatest civil war, the 14-year-long Taiping Rebellion, which claimed millions of lives. Tso was utterly ruthless. He smashed the Taiping rebels in four provinces, put down an unrelated revolt called the Nian Rebellion, then marched west and reconquered Chinese Turkestan from Muslim rebels.

Tso made war, and war made Tso.

It's a poor man's dish, not a feast for a field marshal. Could the chopped-up chicken dish have gotten its name from the sliced and diced victims of Tso's grim reprisals?