Zeng Guofan ruled the army with Confucianism, respected benevolence and righteousness, raised the Xiang army alone and established another discipline. He wrote love folk songs, which made the soldiers of Xiang army make a difference. His article "Begging Guangdong Bandits" encouraged many intellectuals to take off their robes and join the battle with Taiping Army voluntarily. He suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement and enabled the Qing Dynasty to survive. He studied western culture, purged the political style, "saved the disadvantages of the times" and was ambitious, which contributed to the emergence of "Tongzhi Zhongxing" in the late Qing Dynasty. He is sincere in convincing others, avoiding disasters, paying attention to etiquette and being cautious, and weaving the strongest network of relationships. He knows how to make good use of people's abilities and talents, and recommended as many as 1000 subordinates, including more than 40 from the official to the governor. He realized the great cause of Confucianism's self-cultivation and ruling the country, made great achievements and made the words of "three immortals". His official position rose the fastest. Within ten years, he jumped seven levels in a row. At the age of 37, he was promoted to the second grade. Only Zeng Guofan of the Qing Dynasty can have this honor. He is the most stable official. He has served three generations of kings, Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi, for 34 years, and his trust remains unchanged. He is the best official, with outstanding political voice. He has a saying of governing the country and reassuring the people, so he has the reputation of "Zeng Guofan in politics and Hu Xueyan in business". He is a gentleman who studies, while Ming Dow is a scholar, quiet and far-reaching, who looks down on gains and losses. His father is kind and filial, his brother is respectful and has a good family education. His letters from home are a model of family education in ancient China.
There are many works in his life, but Letters from Home is the most widely circulated and influential. In the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), that is, seven years after Zeng Guofan's death, Nakagawa Bookstore engraved Zeng Gong's letter edited by Li and Li Hongzhang.
Zeng Guofan, as a famous politician in modern times, was indifferent to the corruption and decline of the Qing Dynasty after the prosperous period of Ganjia. He said: "The country is poor, but people are distracted, which is very serious." As for "scholar-officials are used to being worried and accommodating", "prosperous times are neither white nor black, neither painful nor itchy" nor "hating secondary bones". He believes that "the bad governance of officials is all caused by group curtains, and it is sincere to seek officials to eliminate the disadvantages of curtains." Based on this, Zeng Guofan put forward that "the administration should get the people first". For those who need both morality and tools in times of crisis, they should advocate honesty, respect benevolent government, oppose tyranny and disturb the people, and must severely punish those officials who take bribes and pervert the law. As for the financial and economic relationship between the national movement and people's livelihood, Zeng Guofan believes that the way to manage money is to make full use of the surplus and deficiency, be down-to-earth, be honest and clean, and "gradually seek rectification, not be eager for quick success." Zeng Guofan mentioned agriculture as the basic strategic position of the national economy. He believes that "people's livelihood comes first, and the national economy takes good years as credit." He demanded that "in today's counties, emphasizing agriculture is the first priority." Influenced by the two Opium Wars, Zeng Guofan had his own views on the diplomatic relations between China and the West. On the one hand, he hates westerners invading China, thinks that others should not snore and sleep next to his couch, and opposes using teachers to help him suppress it, so he is deeply ashamed of using foreign countries. "On the other hand, it is not blindly exclusive and advocates learning from advanced science and technology in the West. For example, he said that buying foreign cultural relics ... visiting thoughtful and intelligent people, starting with practice, and then trying to establish, ... can restrain hair tangles, be diligent and far-sighted.
Through the education of family members, the Zeng family has trained good children from generation to generation. Although it is a big family of Houmen, there has been no dude in 100 years, which cannot be said to be the success of Zeng Guofan's educational thought. The theoretical system of Zeng Guofan's family education is: taking the Eight Classics as the classics, taking the Eight Treasures as the latitude, interspersed with four key words, three auspicious words and three unbelievers, the latitude and longitude are coherent, and the context is connected, forming a complete theoretical system of family management; This theory is different from China's traditional core idea of educating future generations, and it opposes the theory that famous family trainers such as Confucius, Mencius, Zhu Xi and Yan Shi have always adhered to and put into practice. It is of great practical significance to the educational confusion faced by almost every family in today's society.
A plan to compete on the battlefield
Zeng Guofan started as a scholar who trained Xiang Army and governed the country, and suppressed the largest peasant uprising in China history-the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. His military thought is extremely rich in connotation, and it does have something extraordinary. He believes that the number of soldiers is small, but fine, "serenade is strong", "the more soldiers, the weaker the strength; The more reimbursement, the poorer the country. " Advocate the separation of military and political affairs and take responsibility. He bought foreign guns, cannons and ships, which promoted the modernization of China's military weapons. To run the army, strict military discipline is the first, and at the same time, it is intended to cultivate "harmony" and the soldiers are United. He believes that "the general has the heart of death, and the foot soldiers have no life." There are four requirements for selecting candidates: "First, knowing people and being good at their duties, second, being good at containing the enemy's situation, third, being brave in doing things, and fourth, doing business in an orderly way." Zeng Guofan's strategy and tactics are the most abundant in his military thoughts, which are worth learning today. For example, "use soldiers like rabbits." Quiet as a virgin ",the technique of subject and object is wonderful," Zhazhai fights to the death ",the navy should not attack with the wind, choose a good camp," self-government first, then enemy control ",attack the city in deep trenches and high bases, attack the city in tunnels, cooperate with land and water, use static braking," pull out the roots first, then the headland "and so on.
Second, the way to make friends in life
Zeng Guofan is quite insightful about the way of making friends. He believes that it is important to be generous to make friends, and to "be honest and upright, compromise and be tolerant, but be selfless and suspicious." "Don't take advantage of people. Don't take other people's money seriously. " Brainstorm, listen without being deaf. "The way to observe people is to be ethical but not bureaucratic, organize more and talk less." In terms of life, Zeng Guofan believes that "in this troubled times, the poorer the better." As a senior official, "it is always good to have less money and less production." "forbearance is the first priority for officials", "virtue is damaged by fullness, and happiness is reduced by arrogance". Men must be careful with the word "light". "It is not particularly rich and famous. The prosperity of his family name is determined by heaven, that is, whether the virtue of learning is established is mostly related to heaven. Just laugh it off." "Don't do your own work, don't do your own fame", "The sooner you retire, the better". Zeng Guofan wrote twelve proverbs, which basically summarized his way of making friends in life.
Three methods of self-cultivation
Zeng Guofan summed up twelve aspects of cultivation: respect, sitting quietly, getting up early, reading books, reading history, being cautious, nourishing qi, keeping in good health, knowing that the sun will die, knowing that the moon will die, writing, and staying indoors at night. He believes that the ancient people's self-cultivation has four effects: "Caution alone gives birth to kindness, respect and strengthen the body, benevolence and joy, sincerity and respect". Zeng Guofan did not believe in medicine, monks and witches, immortals, honesty, cleverness, truth and wealth. "Life is poor, know life has no worries." Character cultivation is helpful to his career. First of all, he is sincere and consistent in appearance, and everything can be made public. The second is respect, awe, no evil thoughts in my heart, dignity and dignity. The third is silence. Mind, qi, spirit and body should be in a state of peace and relaxation. The fourth word is sincerity, no boasting, no lying, no empty talk, truth, one is one, and the other is two. The fifth word remains the same, with regular life, moderate diet and regular daily life. The highest state is "cautious independence", with a god holding his head three feet high. He kept a diary every day, checked and reflected on his words and deeds every day, and in his later life, he constantly put forward more requirements for himself: to be diligent, modest, kind, honest, to know life, to cherish happiness, and so on, in an effort to make himself a saint at that time. Many people think that personality cultivation is empty, illusory and even pedantic, but the most important reason for Zeng Guofan's career success is cultivation.
Zeng Guofan thought: "there are about five things in the method of keeping in good health: first, sleep and eat often;" Second, punish poverty; Third, abstinence; Fourth, wash your feet before going to bed every night; Fifth, walk three thousand steps after two meals a day. " The four words "eyesight", "rest", "sleep" and "diet" are the most important ways to maintain health, and you should know how to recuperate when you are recovering from illness. Zeng Guofan set himself twelve ways: respect for the Lord: neat and serious, clear in the bow, when the sun rises. Sit-in: Sit-in for four hours at any time every day to keep calm, such as Zhen Ding. Get up early: get up at dawn, and don't cling to love after waking up. Reading is the only way: don't read his book until it is finished. Reading history: read three histories (Historical Records, Hanshu and Houhanshu) and circle ten pages every day, although things are uninterrupted. Attention: Pay attention to the moment, the first time. Nourishing qi: there is nothing to say to people when the gas storage is demonstrated. Fitness: saving labor, abstinence and dieting.
Note: I searched specially for a long time and deleted all the useless ones. I hope to adopt them!