The word "change" is the great realm of life

Zeng Guofan's way of dealing with the world is actually a flexible and dialectical attitude and method of dealing with the world. Therefore, although he is diligent in his life, takes Confucianism as the core, and abides by benevolence and righteousness, he has not changed his ancestry, but in the "shape" of doing things for others, he has changed three times in his life. It is these "three changes" that contain people's praise and disapproval of him. But in any case, without this timely "three changes", there would not have been his greater success and reputation.

It is recorded that Zeng Guofan "changed three times in his life." The calligraphy is beginner Liu Gongquan, the middle-aged Huang Valley, the later Li Beihai, and Liu Shi, so it is quite healthy, and the more charming it is." This is the three variations of the Chinese character. "At the beginning of his learning, he was given the words of Hanlin, not only with Tang Jinghai too often, studying the Confucian quotations, and then for the study of the six books, reading the books of Qianjia and the precepts, and not taking the Song people's commentaries as a matter of course. When he was an official in Beijing, he relied on Cheng Zhu to handle military affairs for regimental training, and then changed to Shen Han. Try to claim that you want to write the "Neijing", and say that it is strong. This is to say that there are three changes in learning.

Looking at Zeng Guofan's ideological tendencies throughout his life, he was based on Confucianism and mixed with hundreds of schools. The ideas of the above-mentioned schools were embodied in almost every period of his life. However, with the changes in the situation, situation, and status, the strength and weakness of each school's doctrine in his thinking varied, which reflected Zeng Guofan's good use of the "contingency" technique of each school's theory.

Zeng Guofan's fellow villager friend Ouyang Zhaoxiong once believed that Zeng Guofan's thinking had three changes in his life. In his early years in the capital, he believed in Confucianism, adopted Legalism when governing the Hunan army and suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and turned to Taoism in Laozhuang after becoming famous in his later years. This statement roughly outlines the important ideological characteristics of the three periods of Zeng Guofan's life.

Zeng Guofan's solid Confucian skills were laid during the period when he was a Beijing official. After he knocked on the door of being an official with the stepping stone of Cheng Zhu Lixue, he did not throw it aside, but conducted an in-depth study of it. In the new environment, he received the guidance of Tang Jian, Wu Ren and other masters of science, and entered the hall, and his scientific literacy reached a new level. He not only gained an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the concepts of sexuality, life, reason, sincerity, and knowledge of things, but also carried out systematic training in the physical and mental cultivation that science attaches importance to. This kind of physical and mental cultivation is a kind of "inner sage" kung fu in Confucianism, and through this kind of "inner sage" kung fu of self-denial, the goal of governing the country and leveling the world is finally achieved. He also played the Confucian way of "foreign kings" and advocated the application of the world. Tang Jian once told him that the economy, that is, the application of the world is included in the righteousness, and Zeng Guofan fully approved of it and gave great play to it. He attached great importance to the investigation of practical problems and the study of ways to solve them, and proposed many reform measures. Zeng Guofan's in-depth study of Confucianism, especially Cheng Zhu Lixue, was an important ideological feature of his period, and the application of this set of theories and methods ran through his entire life.

From the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan was ordered to organize the Hunan army to suppress the peasant uprising. During this period, it was particularly clear that he admired the Legalist ideology of strict punishment and strict law. He proposed to "use pure repetition", believing that it could not be cured unless fiery means were adopted. Moreover, he also told the imperial court that even if it was called cruel and harsh, he would not hesitate to do so. He did the same, setting up a bureau to torture and kill the peasants he captured. He also stipulated that those who did not run out of food would be punished on the spot once they were caught. In his opinion, the Confucian way of "the golden mean" would not work at this time.

Zeng Guofan's Lao Zhuang thought has always been revealed. He often said that in the place of fame and fortune, there must be a heart of concession. Since the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was decided, and it was about to be completed, the stronger this thought became, and a sense of crisis of rabbit death and dog cooking often lingered in my heart. He wrote to his younger brother that since ancient times, few people with high power and great names could have a good death, and they had to give up their power to a few percent in order to maintain the late festival, and after the fall of Tianjing, Zeng Guofan immediately dismissed the Hunan army and planned to retire after success, so as to avoid the suspicion of the Qing government.

The different ideological tendencies of the three periods show that Zeng Guofan was good at drawing nutrients from the hundreds of schools of thought in various situations. Rong Hong said that Zeng Guofan was "a special product of the old education". Undoubtedly, in Zeng Guofan, various genes of traditional Chinese culture were cast, and it was these genes that made Zeng Guofan the "three immortals" and the last spiritual idol of feudal society.

There is an important process about Zeng Guofan's attitude towards the world from cool to supple. This process took place in 1858. Zeng Guofan was the first to govern the army, severely punished the law, and his methods were very harsh, and it can be seen from the incident of his killing of Li Jinyang that he was cruel and ruthless, and he had a lot of grievances with the Xinjiang marshal. However, since 1858, things have changed dramatically. This process of change is documented...... First of all, Wenzheng (Zeng Guofan) and Hu Wenzhong (Hu Linyi) wrote, Yan Kejing (Luo Bingzhang) was hindered by trouble, and he was scolded, and there were words to persuade Wang Xiaoer never to speak during the New Year. To the eight years of love and then to aid Zhejiang, just to the province, there are "respect for the victory, righteousness over the desire, know its male, guard its female" 12 words, belong to Kejing for the book to see the meaning, the joy as before, do not miss the old evil. After going out of the mountain this time, he practiced judo, so that he succeeded, and there was no complacency. Taste the joke and say: "He has made an epitaph for me in the future, and I have written the inscription: I don't believe in the book, I believe in luck, and the words of the public will tell the world." Therefore, there are a few words in the couplet, "the name of the sweat and horses, and the cattle are regarded as chaff and dirt", which claims to be the way of this old heart. Gavin is trying to say that Yu Mo is the body, and Zhuang Lao is used, so you can know its trend. How did Tsang become "supple"? Some people think that Luo Ruhuai's exhortation is the most influential. When Zeng's father Ding was worried about taking leave at home, Ru Huai sent a book, earnestly persuading him not to fight for power. His book is slightly cloudy: I know Your Excellency as a strange man, and there is no one who can see the people of the Quartet, who is it? People in the world can do things for those who are plain and skilled, especially in military affairs. Your Excellency does not have the habit of being a senior official, but performs the troops and does things personally. Shu several Yu of the wind and rain, calluses and feet, so the ship can be strong and the wall is strong. That is, the fecal toilet is also separated, the so-called road to the feces drowning, this is not a high-minded talk I don't know and the author can see it, but revisit its face, or from the bottom, Mu Haoxian's elegance, follow the festival of the week, the day is expected to be the arrival of the wizards, but the victory over the city of Fuke, the Buddha gives, and the strangers have no how. Your Excellency is curious, and Si can't help but be too strange. There has been no miracle for the husband to save the lack since ancient times, and the situation is scarce today. However, the way to make money is not without good laws, and it is especially valuable and beautiful. As the proverb goes, "Officials come from the people, and the people come from the land." "The method of appropriation and donation should be to make the people have no complaints, and the officials will not have complaints, and the financial resources will not be suffocated. so that the people have no complaints, and your Excellency knows and thinks that he is a good talker; If the official has no complaints, then what you do not know is the one who speaks. However, it is also so, so it is self-bending, self-appropriation, and donations and taxes are all self-conscious, and there is no longer anyone's opinion. Although the military affairs are the exclusive powers, and the duties of the people and the frontier officials, each holds its own way, and the same is true for the change of place. Your Excellency will do your own military and political affairs, and the power will not be sidelined, and if you want to take charge of the affairs of the land and the people of one side, then the saint will set up officials and divide duties, and there will be no official affairs. Luo Ruhuai's book vented Zeng Guofan's exacting and monopoly of power. Tsang was able to accept it with humility, and his actions after 1858 were also deeply influenced by him. If you compare the failure to save Wang Zhu in 1854 because of his incompatibility with Wang Zhu, and the fact that he was able to help him succeed in the northwest after breaking off relations with Zuo Zongtang in 1864, you can see Zeng Guofan's treatment of people, and the two of them were judged before and after.

It is said that Zeng Guofan used Yu ink as the body and Lao Zhuang as the use, but in fact, Zeng Guofan used Yu ink as the body and Shen Han as the body before 1858. After 1858, it began to change to Xunshun. If Zeng Guofan's life is divided into three stages, each has its own characteristics: the first stage is a period of forging ahead and striving for progress; The second stage is to draw and operate, when the merits are complete; The third stage is a peaceful period of self-restraint, maintaining profits and maintaining Tai, and not seeking strength in the victorious place. He Yi of the Republic of China said: As far as the three periods of Zeng Gongzhi are concerned, his early life was like the beginning of the morning and the weather was vigorous. Regardless of emotion, will, learning and virtue, there is a general sense of prosperity. In middle age, it is like a bright day, flourishing for a while, whether it is moral knowledge or career articles, they have gradually matured and are contemptuous. In his later years, like the evening sun, there are not many good times, although the virtue is more mellow, admirable, and the ambition and deeds are less replaced. It can be seen that Zeng Guofan's life is not only a life of three changes, but even a life of change.

It would be unwise to go all the way to the end. Those who acquire successful personalities have one specialty: improvisation and ingenuity. Zeng Guofan went through three major adjustments in his life, constantly changing the tricks to obtain a successful character, so he finally acquired a successful character.

The key to doing things depends on timing

The character of the hesitant is prominently manifested in the inability to grasp opportunities. There is no shortage of indecisive people in our lives who have difficulty making decisions about big or small things. The reason for this is that people are indecisive because they always want to make the right choice, and they think that by postponing the choice, they can avoid making mistakes and thus avoid worry. One patient went to a psychiatrist when the doctor asked him if it was difficult to make a decision. He replied, "Hmm...... It's hard to say. ”

So, how can indecisive character be overcome and stopped?

To eliminate indecision, you don't measure every possible outcome in terms of right and wrong, good and bad, even best and worst. The result of all the choices is just that they are different. For example, if you go to the store and buy a piece of clothing, and when you show it to your parents, friends, or children, they will show different opinions, and you can't tell which one of them is right and which is wrong. The key point is that what you like is the most important thing.

If you adopt a self-defeating standard of right and wrong, you will realize that whenever you make a decision, you only have to weigh one of the outcomes. If you regret your decision afterwards and realize that regret is a waste of time, the next time you will make a different decision to meet your expectations. But in any case, you will never make a decision with "right" or "wrong".

Zeng Guofan was a famous theoretician and doer in the late Qing Dynasty, he admired science, but he was not pedantic, he believed that a kind of truth "when the time is expensive, when the time is lost", and said that "if things are poor, they will change, and since ancient times". During the transition period between the two cultures, Zeng Guofan was stimulated by a series of facts, and gradually integrated the two cultures from the inside, becoming an active advocate of modern culture.

Zeng Guofan said: "The way of staying at home, the way of governing the army, and the way to reward people, the rest do not have a certain style, and the key depends on the timing." ”

Zeng Guofan was also immersed in the way of saints earlier, and he knew nothing about the situation in the overseas Quartet. There was the Opium War first, and the whole country was shocked, and Zeng Guofan began to have a preliminary understanding of the strong ships and artillery of the Western powers. In the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857), the British and French troops entered Beijing, and the people of insight in the government and the opposition woke up like a dream, believing that the country was already in a weak position, the fence was removed, the door was opened, and the spear weapons were far less sharp than the guns of outsiders. In the Qing court, there were Yi Yi, Wen Xiang and other important officials who were known as knowing current affairs. Among the Xinjiang officials, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and others began to vigorously advocate the self-improvement movement. Their actions are undoubtedly a kind of "timely and expensive" move.

Zeng Guofan also believes that even a person's thinking and behavior style is "expensive when the time comes, and loss when the time is lost". For example, his use of the idea of etiquette and the rule of law illustrates this point. Many people know that Zeng Guofan is a disciple of Shen Han, advocating strict punishment and strict law, and vigorously dispel the corrupt wind for officials, and severely punish traitors and beetles for the people to correct the world style. Back then, when Zeng Guofan was in Hunan, he never showed mercy to the bullies and treacherous people in the township, and he was beheaded at the worst, and he was killed by the rod at the lightest, and the lives of other people did not deserve to die, and they were rarely whipped when they were imprisoned, and many people died in prison. At that time, the villagers of Hunan gave Zeng Guofan the nickname of "Zeng Shaved Head". But this is only one end of Zeng Guofan's legal thinking, in fact, his function of ideological education has always been put forward before the rule of law, and the rule of etiquette comes first, so the application of strict laws is only to deal with the disadvantages accumulated by the degeneration of the world. It's just that later, from Shen Han to Lao Zhuang. In the view of Zeng Guofan at that time, in view of the decadent and declining world style, advocating strict punishment and strict law was a kind of "timely".

Therefore, Zeng Guofan said: "The way of home, the way of governing the army, and the way of rewarding people, there is no certain style, and the key depends on the timing." "The fundamental method of a person with brains and wisdom is to see clearly all kinds of complex situations in front of him and use his brain on opportunities. The reason why Zeng Guofan's brain is so smart is because he can seize opportunities from others and find hope from the opportunities that others have lost, so he has the tendency to acquire a successful character.

Opportunity is a springboard to success. People with a resolute character do not let "well-wishers" send opportunities, but take the initiative to pounce on opportunities and salvage the "gold" they want from opportunities.

You might as well switch to another path

The road of life is not one, but many. In the same way, in order to survive, there should be many possibilities to choose from to avoid leading yourself to the wrong end. Of course, whether this is the case or not depends on a person's personality. Zeng Guofan led the troops to fight, read ancient books hard, and seemed to be not good at seeking a changeable road, but in fact, he also understood the role of business in a strong country, and his brain was flexible, and he reused talents who were proficient in this area.

"Borrowing business to strengthen the country, borrowing soldiers to defend business", this was strongly advocated by enlightened officials in ancient China, and Zeng Guofan also paid attention to the relationship between business, the country and people's livelihood.

For ordinary people, it is important that food, clothing, housing and transportation are guaranteed. In life, one is to have food to eat, and the other is to have money to spend, so that people's hearts can be stable, their lives will be guaranteed, and the people will be willing to receive education. The so-called "rich and then taught" is said to be this truth. When education is carried out, people will be required to behave according to social standards of morality. In this way, the social atmosphere will improve, there will be order in society, and the world will be peaceful.

"No business, no life". Commerce is the source of financial resources, and commerce provides economic resources and material foundation for all walks of life. Vigorously developing commerce is a requirement for the development of science and technology, the development of industrial and agricultural production, and the need for the state's financial construction, and we should attach great importance to it.

Zeng Guofan understood the importance of trade and commerce by purchasing weapons from foreigners. With its advanced ships and artillery in the West, it quickly exterminated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, due to financial constraints, this fund was not available and was put on hold for the time being. At the end of the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), the Taiping army captured Ningbo, Hangzhou and other places, and continued to attack the southeast, starting a war on the outskirts of Shanghai. Rumors that the Taiping army was raising funds to buy ship guns from the United States caused great panic among the Qing government, and if the rumors turned out to be true, the Taiping army was likely to move north from the occupied Ningbo Haikou to Tianjin to attack Beijing. For this reason, the purchase of military ship guns from foreign countries was once again put on the agenda. Shangshu Zhao Guang and Yushi Wei Muting both wrote to the imperial court, proposing to borrow troops to help suppress and quickly purchase foreign steamship firearms to deal with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At this time, Yi Yi, who played a pivotal role in the imperial court, also believed: "The situation is very urgent, and it is not possible to discuss the proposal to borrow troops to suppress the thieves, and the proposal to purchase ships and cannons is still subject to the detailed examination of the Chinese and foreign associations." So it was decided to buy the ship's guns first. How to raise this money? The Acting Attorney-General of Revenue, Hurd, suggested to Yi that the opium tax should be set aside for the purchase of ship guns.

Zeng Guofan values Rong Hong because he has some scheming in foreign and business. After graduating from Yale University in the United States, Rong Hong returned to his motherland, but the Qing Dynasty did not pay attention to him, and allowed him to work as a translator, a staff member of Shanghai Customs, and a staff member of a foreign bank, and did business freely. In this process, the vigorous development of the Taiping Revolution and the Second Opium War fully exposed the corruption and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty and greatly disappointed it. In the autumn of the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), Rong Hong came to Tianjin from Shanghai to conduct a field trip to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which he "responded to with several desires", and was warmly welcomed by Hong Ren, and was invited to give lectures on military and political affairs many times. In the second year of Tongzhi (1863), after the introduction of Li Shanlan, he joined Zeng Mu and handled foreign affairs.

At that time, Rong Hong's main idea was to implement his plan of "learning from the West to the East" through Zeng Guofan. At the first meeting, Zeng Guofan proposed to him: "You think that if you want to be the most beneficial and important cause for China today, where should you start?" Rong Hong immediately replied: "If China wants to build a machine factory today, it must first establish an ordinary foundation, and it is not suitable for special applications. The so-called ordinary foundation, there is no other, that is, from this factory can create a variety of branches, but also by the branch factory to specialize in all kinds of special machinery. In short, the factory should have the machinery to manufacture the machine, which is the foundation of all the manufacturing plants. Rong Hong particularly emphasized the "ordinary foundation" of the factory, because with such a foundation, not only can make guns, ammunition, ships, but also all kinds of machinery, as the foundation of all manufacturing plants.

After the conversation, Zeng Guofan was deeply impressed by the young man's idea of "making instruments" and felt that this idea was a cut above his own arms production for "special applications." A few days later, Zeng Guofan summoned Rong Hong again, specially folded and guaranteed him as the fifth rank, allocated 68,000 taels of silver, and sent him to the United States to buy advanced machinery and equipment. For Zeng Guofan's kindness, Rong Hong believes that there is no return for a while, and only by doing his best to buy back machinery and equipment is the best return for Zeng Guofan. Soon after, Rong Hong set out from Anqing, arrived in the United States in the spring of the following year via London, England, and finally signed a contract with Pu Denan Company to be manufactured by the company according to the standard of "machine for manufacturing machines", and arrived in Shanghai in the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865).

Through Rong Hong's purchase of foreign machinery, Zeng Guofan deepened his understanding of trade and trade, and also made a peaceful discussion on the relationship between him and his study and official. The purpose of doing business is to make huge profits, and studying is to gain fame and power. If a person studies hard and is not productive, he should put his studies and become an official in a secondary position, and devote his main energy to doing business and getting rich. After making a profit from business, for the sake of future generations, we should put business in a secondary position and concentrate on studying and studying the world. In this way, one relaxation and one complement each other, either to win the family business, or to obtain high-ranking officials, just like the wheel of the wheel is constantly changing.

Zeng Guofan can look at the problem from the overall situation, deal with the matter in front of him flexibly, and not stick to one law rigidly and dogmatically, so he naturally seems to be changeable. As a person who gallops across the field and deeply studies ancient books, it is not easy to have such a mind. This also shows that there is a fickle element in Zeng Guofan's personality.