General Tso's Chicken

General Tso was from Xiangyin¹, a county in Hunan province. His courtesy name was Jigao², and he gave himself the pseudonym “A Farmer Above the Xiang River.” He never passed the imperial exams³. In his early years, he farmed, studied on his own, and eventually worked as a private advisor. Hence, the “farmer.” “Xiang” refers to the Xiang River, which runs through his hometown.

General Tso came from a family of scholars but never managed to pass the exams. He was considered a failed scholar, but from a young age he had a strong grasp of the Confucian classics, geography, and military strategy—and the ambition to “govern the world with half a book of military theory.”⁴ ChatGPT once called him a “genius who failed the exam system,” and I think that’s about right. He took the imperial exams seven times. Seven. I don’t even want to take one college entrance exam; he took seven and failed them all.

It proves something: if a system was never built for you, there’s no need to tie your fate to it. Tso was a polymath. He couldn’t recite the Eight-Legged Essay⁵, but he had read the Spring and Autumn Annals⁶, Tso Commentary⁷, Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance⁸, and Book of Han⁹. He studied Confucian thought seriously¹⁰—not just as dogma, but as a way to read the present. He wrote reading notes and lecture manuscripts, and published A Direct Interpretation of the Classics¹¹ and Collected Works of Minister Tso¹².

It’s said he was well-versed in geography and irrigation. He understood topography, water systems, and agricultural patterns. During the pacification of the northwest, he personally surveyed and mapped the terrain, planned routes for transport and resettlement, and studied the layout of deserts, oases, mountain passes, and rivers. He was one of the first high-ranking officials to physically investigate the geography of the Silk Road. ChatGPT said that many court officials at the time couldn’t even locate the Western Regions¹³, while Tso could point to a map and explain the route from Lanzhou¹⁴ to Turpan.

He also knew something about warfare. Though not trained as a soldier, he had been obsessed since childhood with classic military texts—The Art of War¹⁵, Wuzi¹⁶, Records of Military Training¹⁷, Military Mirror¹⁸. He especially admired Ming generals Qi Jiguang¹⁹ and Yu Dayou²⁰, and studied their organizational methods. His approach emphasized “civil and military unity,” rejected the idea that generals were mere brutes, and insisted that discipline and morale mattered. This was radically different from the decayed systems of the Eight Banners and the Green Standard Army.

Zeng Guofan²¹ recognized his talent and brought him into his inner circle, once saying: “After three days of discussing warfare with him, the troops were stirred to action.” The phrase “governing the world with half a book of military theory” wasn’t Tso’s own—it was a later tribute to his ability. It meant that even with just the general principles of warfare, he could pacify the northwest and reclaim Xinjiang.

However, General Tso’s Chicken—it has almost nothing to do with him.

General Tso’s Chicken was invented by Peng Chang-kuei, a chef who once served Chiang Kai-shek. Born in Changsha, Hunan, Peng learned the art of Hunan cuisine from his father at an early age. In the 1930s, he entered the Nationalist government’s top kitchen in Nanjing, starting out as a junior assistant and eventually rising to head chef. He was known for his precise knife skills and refined palate, blending techniques from Hunan, Huaiyang, and Sichuan cuisines.

After the war, Peng became a key figure in the Nationalist culinary scene, responsible for state banquets and high-level diplomatic meals. He personally cooked for figures like Richard and Pat Nixon, Soong Mei-ling, and Zhang Xueliang. When the Nationalist government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, Peng followed, continuing to oversee major state functions and banquets.

In Taipei, he opened a restaurant called Peng Garden and introduced the idea of “New Hunan cuisine”—a hybrid style that fused the spiciness of Hunanese food, the technical precision of Sichuanese dishes, and the finesse of Taiwanese banquet culture. He redefined the format of formal Chinese dining in Taiwan and helped establish the prototype for modern upscale Chinese restaurants. He eventually earned the title “Father of Taiwanese Banquet Cuisine.”

During the 1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis, Peng was asked to prepare a banquet for Admiral Arthur Radford, then Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. On a whim, he created a new chicken dish and named it after General Zuo Zongtang (Tso Tsung-t’ang), the Hunanese military hero who quelled several 19th-century rebellions. The name added a sense of history and gravitas.

In the early 1970s, Chinese-American chefs from New York traveled to Taipei to research Hunan cuisine for their soon-to-open restaurants. At Peng’s restaurant, they encountered the chicken dish. Back in New York, they modified it for American palates—deep-frying the chicken, deboning it, adding sugar, hoisin sauce, water chestnuts, wood ear mushrooms, and other ingredients. The sweet-and-spicy version of General Tso’s Chicken was born, and it quickly became a staple of American Chinese restaurants.

In 1973, Peng came to New York himself and was surprised to find that his dish had preceded him—and been transformed. He partnered with David Keh to open Uncle Peng’s on East 44th Street, but the initial reception was lukewarm. Ironically, some diners thought he was copying the others. He later reopened a restaurant under the name Peng’s, and this time the reviews were glowing. Mimi Sheraton of The New York Times called his General Tso’s Chicken “a sizzling hot masterpiece.”

Henry Kissinger became a regular, and according to Peng, “he was the one who brought Hunanese cuisine into the public eye.” After Peng demonstrated the dish on ABC News, the station received over 1,500 recipe requests.The dish—crispy fried chicken tossed in a tangy, sweet-and-spicy sauce—quickly caught on. Naming it after a Hunanese general added historical flavor and helped frame it as “authentic” Chinese food, even if the version Americans ate bore little resemblance to the original.

It’s said that Peng’s creation was based on a traditional Hunan dish of sour-and-spicy fried chicken. I remember my father cooking a similar version when he visited me in the U.S. a few months ago. But strangely, I don’t recall eating it growing up. My guess is that General Tso’s Chicken is probably a cousin of laziji—Hunan or Sichuan-style spicy chicken fried with peanuts, dried chilies, and Sichuan peppercorns. The two share a similar spirit.

Though the original was more fiery and sour, the American version evolved over time—sweeter, thicker, saucier—eventually becoming a symbol of American Chinese cuisine. Peng himself later criticized the U.S. version as “too sweet, too greasy, completely inauthentic.” Still, he was the dish’s originator and namer, and his creation became a model for how Chinese food could survive, adapt, and thrive abroad: wrapping the unfamiliar in familiar flavors, surviving through compromise, and evolving through creativity.

In the late 1980s, Peng returned to Taiwan and launched a Peng Garden restaurant chain. General Tso’s Chicken remained on the menu—listed in Mandarin as “Zuo Gong Nongjia Ji” (General Zuo’s Farmhouse Chicken) and in English as “Chicken à la Viceroy.” He also attempted to open a location in Changsha’s Great Wall Hotel, but it struggled to find footing. That’s not hard to understand—compared to local palates, the dish was still on the sweet side. Peng continued to run his restaurants in Taiwan until his death in 2016, at the age of 98.

Notes

1. Xiangyin: A county in Hunan province, located along the Xiang River. It was General Tso’s birthplace.

2. Courtesy name (字, zì): A name traditionally given to Chinese men upon reaching adulthood, used in formal or scholarly contexts.

3. Imperial exams: The keju system—standardized civil service examinations used for selecting government officials in imperial China. Passing them, especially at the highest level (jinshi), was seen as essential for elite status.

4. “Half a book of military theory”: A phrase used posthumously to praise Zuo Zongtang’s military talent. It suggests that he needed only a fragment of classical military knowledge to effectively command and govern.

5. Eight-Legged Essay (八股文): A rigid writing format required in imperial exams during the Ming and Qing dynasties, often criticized for encouraging rote learning over original thinking.

6. Spring and Autumn Annals (《春秋》): A Confucian chronicle of the State of Lu, traditionally attributed to Confucius.

7. Zuo Commentary (《左传》): A historical narrative and commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, attributed to Zuo Qiuming; known for its literary and political insight.

8. Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance (《资治通鉴》): A vast chronological history of China compiled in the Song dynasty, meant to offer lessons in statecraft.

9. Book of Han (《汉书》): The official history of the Western Han dynasty, covering politics, economics, and culture.

10. Confucian thought (儒学义理): The moral-philosophical system derived from Confucian classics, including ideas on governance, ethics, and social roles.

11. A Direct Interpretation of the Classics (《今经直解》): A work by Zuo Zongtang offering a contemporary and pragmatic reading of Confucian texts.

12. Collected Works of Minister Zuo (《左文襄公全集》): A posthumous compilation of Zuo Zongtang’s writings, letters, and essays.

13. Western Regions (西域): A historical term used in imperial China to refer to Central Asia, especially the area west of the Yumen Pass.

14. Lanzhou: A strategic city in Gansu province, a gateway to the northwest and the Silk Road.

15. The Art of War (《孙子兵法》): The foundational Chinese military text attributed to Sun Tzu.

16. Wuzi (《吴子》): A classical Chinese military treatise attributed to Wu Qi, emphasizing discipline and command.

17. Records of Military Training (《练兵实纪》): A Ming-era work on military organization and training, often associated with Qi Jiguang.

18. Military Mirror (《兵鉴》): Another classical text on Chinese military theory, including case studies and battle principles.

19. Qi Jiguang: A Ming dynasty general known for defeating Japanese pirates and reforming military training systems.

20. Yu Dayou: Another celebrated Ming general and military theorist, often mentioned alongside Qi Jiguang.

21. Zeng Guofan: A prominent Qing official, military leader, and Confucian scholar. He led the Xiang Army and mentored Zuo Zongtang during the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion.