Zuo was a feudal bureaucrat of the Qing government. He helped the Qing government to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement and made it an executioner to suppress the people's uprising. He is one of the representatives of the local figures of the Westernization School. He once held the Westernization Theory, which stimulated the development of capitalism in China. He was also an insightful official in the Qing Dynasty. He clearly saw Russia's coveted territory in western China, and insisted on resisting Russian aggression and leading troops to recover Xinjiang, which was praised by people all over the country.