Zeng Guofan's life, meritorious service, virtue and speech.
Mao Zedong commented: "Serve the people and only serve Ceng Wenzheng. Watching it clean up the flood and Yang Yi's battle is perfect, so that it can be so perfect today? " Chiang Kai-shek commented: "Ceng Gong is a model of China spirit."
Born in an ordinary family, he was a grassroots with an average IQ, but every step he took became the cornerstone of life improvement, eventually becoming the last leader of the Qing Dynasty and the last idol of Confucian culture from fools to saints. What is his way of fighting back and upgrading?
Zeng Guofan entered the imperial examination for seven times, then made great strides and was promoted to the DPRK in one fell swoop. This road of imperial examination shaped his "clumsy" philosophy of life: advocating clumsiness. His method of learning to read is clumsy. He reads sentence by sentence, never reads another sentence if he doesn't understand it, and only after reading a book does he touch the next sentence. He read it again and again, surpassing the diligence, hardship and hard work spirit of finding people and laying a very solid foundation. After mastering the tricks, it will be smooth sailing, just like in the more difficult juren and Jinshi exams.
Since you are naturally slow, play to your strengths. Trickle-down accumulation, dripping water wears away the stone, pursuing solid and thorough, step by step. Later, he led his troops to pay attention to "building hard villages and fighting dark battles." Just like Yang Guo's "no front in epee" and Guo Jing's "clumsy skills", it is slow and steady and invincible.
Still clumsy, the best in the world is not as good as the best in the world.
Zeng Guofan's life has experienced numerous difficulties, setbacks, failures and even retrogression. But he never gave up, worked hard and drove hard, and finally succeeded step by step. His road to imperial examinations is like this, so is the road to fighting bandits, and so is the road to being a saint.
Many things are long-term undertakings, which can not be done by "fierce cooking" at one time, but more need "slow cooking" to succeed. Zeng Guofan emphasized the importance of constancy all his life. He said that "constancy is the foundation of sanctification". He keeps a diary day after day and manages himself without interruption. His life is a life of constant self-sharpening and self-cultivation. In constant tempering, temperament and personality gradually change, people become more and more persistent, generous and sincere, and their quality becomes more and more pure. They stand higher and higher and see farther and farther. Don't worry, don't slack off, stick to constancy and be mature.
A man without perseverance will accomplish nothing in his life.
After experiencing the inferiority and anxiety of Beijing officials, Zeng Guofan's desire for self-improvement became stronger and stronger. At the age of 30, he decided to reinvent himself and turn over a new leaf, determined to be a "saint". "If you are not a saint, you are an animal", which is a grand personality ideal. His every move, without exception, can govern the country and benefit the people
After setting this great ambition of "lifelong large-scale", he began his own road of self-management, self-reflection and lifelong learning. From the end, he has been climbing forward all his life, thinking about his goals, constantly improving himself and practicing himself. Although he made many mistakes, he was not idle for a moment, which finally made him meritorious, moral and independent.
Confucius' "I save three times a day" is vividly displayed in Zeng Guofan. Whether he was an official in Beijing or founded the Xiang army to suppress bandits, Zeng Guofan was constantly reflecting on himself. He is impetuous, conceited, vulgar, irritable, hypocritical, narrow-minded and paranoid ... all of which Zeng Guofan had when he was young. One day later, he reflected on himself, his relatives and friends, his success or failure through his diary, and even lurked for two years, and finally "reborn".
His road to introspection is long. Introspection enables him to improve himself, treat others sincerely, be broad-minded, and realize that the world is the softest and the most powerful. From then on, he mutually assured destruction with others and embarked on an extraordinary road.
Reflection, here is the reverse thinking. When the Xiang army was founded, Zeng Guofan did not think about "how the Xiang army has fighting capacity" first, but analyzed "why green camp has no fighting capacity" first. He found a very important starting point, summed up the mistakes made by others, and then did the opposite. He also summed up his mistakes and reflected through introspection. He was an official in Beijing, facing other officials, why he felt inferior, why the Xiang army started badly, why he encountered difficulties in Jiangxi, and so on. Through reflection, he found the root of the disease and eliminated it until he succeeded.
Only by finding the essence of things and finding the core key of things with reverse thinking can we consolidate the source, thus accumulating positively and moving towards success.
For the sake of his own ambition, Zeng Guofan formulated twelve methods of self-management, namely, respect, sitting quietly, getting up early, studying hard, reading history, being cautious, holding your breath, keeping fit, knowing that you will die every day, not forgetting what you can do in the month, writing words, and staying out at night.
Aim high, cultivate one's mind and cultivate one's nature, but cultivate strict self-management and lifelong self-discipline is undoubtedly the key to get rid of mediocrity and move towards sage.
Zeng Guofan's grassroots counterattack, constant struggle and upgrading, and the successful transformation from ordinary to extraordinary are all equally mediocre examples for our generations. His growth has inspired us to grow up and given us firm strength.