Reflections on Zeng Guofan's Diary

The day is coming to an end, and I believe you will learn a lot, so keep a good diary. So what format does the diary have? The following are my thoughts on reading Zeng Guofan's diary, which I will sort out for you. I hope I can help you.

Zeng Guofan gave the impression that he was heavy-hearted and patient. Astrology believes that this is the characteristic of Taurus and other "earth signs": it has perseverance and is suitable for jobs that require tenacious perseverance and long-term efforts.

But Zeng Guofan's birthday shows that he is actually a Sagittarius. What are the characteristics of Sagittarius? It is said that he is "as free as the wind", extroverted and unable to sit still. Zeng Guofan was so much when he was young. He is a person who likes making friends, traveling, chatting and joking very much.

At that time, Zeng Guofan had another hobby, that is, he loved watching people kill. Zeng Guofan lived near the food market in the south of the city, which was the execution ground of the Qing Dynasty. So Zeng Guofan went to see the murder case with his friends from time to time.

In fact, Zeng Guofan, who just arrived in Beijing, is not only narrow-minded and vulgar, but also has many shortcomings in character.

The first problem in Zeng Guofan's character is that he can't calm down and his life is irregular.

The second problem is arrogance and poor cultivation. He is the only scholar among his classmates, and he ordered the Hanlin, so it is inevitable that he feels great. In the first few years in Beijing, he often had conflicts with people. Once, he quarreled with a fellow countryman, Zheng Xiaoshan, the minister of punishments, because of one thing. He is about to start working across the table. After everyone tore it apart, they pointed at each other's noses and cursed each other.

The third problem is "hypocrisy". Of course, this "hypocrisy" does not mean how wicked he is, but that he, like ordinary people, is easy to say good things in social situations, likes to talk big and doesn't know how to pretend to understand.

In addition to the above three points, Zeng Guofan believes that he still has a big shortcoming that must be corrected, that is, "lust" and love to see beautiful women. For example, once he saw a housewife at a friend's house, "it's impolite to stare at her for several times."

Today, it seems a bit ridiculous. He is hot-blooded, and naturally he will have a crush on beautiful women. This is just a normal instinctive reaction, but at that time, Zeng Guofan thought it was a serious problem.

Everyone has a desire for self-improvement, especially in youth, which is the time when one pursues perfection most. Thirty years is a very important year in Zeng Guofan's life history. This year, he decided to thoroughly remould oneself, turn over a new leaf, and made up his mind to learn to be a "saint".

The so-called sage is to understand the laws of nature and master the laws of everything in the world through his hard work and hard practice. In this way, his every move is appropriate, and he can run the country and bring benefits to the people. And I made a contribution and made a statement, which is immortal.

What a magnificent design this is!

Zeng Guofan defined the goal of life as a "saint" at the age of thirty. "Either a saint or an animal", that is to say, I have only one choice, either to be an ignorant person or a saint, and there is no middle way to choose.

In the 22nd year of Daoguang (1842), Zeng Guofan said in a letter to his younger brother that he had made up his mind for life. He said:

The ambition of a gentleman is also a matter of people, and the amount of things is also the industry of being a saint inside and a king outside, and then regardless of the lives of parents, it is worthy of being perfect.

This is the "life scale" he set for himself. He believes that this goal has been achieved, and other goals will naturally be achieved.

The beginning of remodeling: keeping a diary

Ambition is high, but how to do it? Zeng Guofan's method of learning to be a saint is very simple, that is, "keeping a diary."

Zeng Guofan asked the great scholar Tang Jian how to manage himself. Tang Jian told him that the most important thing is to keep a diary every day. This is the basis of sanctification. Zeng Guofan didn't understand at first. Because he had written a diary before, he didn't think it was important to keep a diary.

We opened Zeng Guofan's early diary, and like most of us, we can't remember it clearly. There are many problems:

The first one is incoherent and can't persist all the time. The earliest existing diary of Zeng Guofan has been preserved for nearly a year. It was interrupted from the beginning of the 19th year of Daoguang (1839) to December 21st of that year. Zeng Guofan said that this is because he "misplaced his diary in the box and could not take it out day by day to record it at will." This excuse is obviously far-fetched.

The second problem is keeping a diary as a running account, and often the whole day's events are recorded in one sentence. For example, in the 19th year of Daoguang (1839), there were six words in the diary on April 27th: "Shen Mingfu invited you to dinner." On the ninth day of May, there were five words in the diary: "Stay at Uncle Xuan's house." Perfunctory.

The third problem is that you can't do what you ask yourself in your diary.

Tang Jian told him that the diary was not written like this. The most important purpose of keeping a diary is to reflect on yourself. Every night, Tang Jian keeps several introspection records to supervise and regulate himself. Even on the road, or in an emergency, this rule will not be broken.

First of all, keeping a diary should be regarded as a' great event' in life and should be written with respect, because it reflects a sincere attitude.

Secondly, the role of the diary is to "study a few", that is, the details, that is, to grasp the details in life and change yourself through each detail, instead of gently sliding over the details.

Therefore, Zeng Guofan began to keep a diary on October 1st in the 22nd year of Daoguang (1842). Carefully go over what you have done and said all day, then reflect on what you have done and said wrong, "wake up from the pain", record it and reflect deeply.

He described his fight with Zheng Xiaoshan in his diary, and then analyzed it. Although both of them were wrong, the sage taught him to start from himself and correct it as soon as possible, and he realized that he would change it immediately. So he put down his pen and immediately went to Zheng Xiaoshan to make amends. Zheng Xiaoshan was also very moved. It turned out that both of them were at fault. As a result, Zeng Guofan took the initiative to apologize, so the two raised their glasses and made up.

In his diary, he also keeps a high degree of vigilance against the "insincerity", "hypocrisy" and "exaggeration" he loves to commit. He reflected, "I am very ill. What do I mean by Confucius' clever command and Mencius' curse? ..... try to come up with this to please people. Is it a gentleman? Is the woman a villain? " In other words, boasting is exactly what Confucius called "clever command", which is the behavior of villains. Zeng Guofan reflected, and critics praised people for being cautious, which would make people take their words seriously.

As for abstinence, he also used a lot of psychological energy. Once he moved his heart and took one more look at the beautiful woman, he wrote it down immediately when he got home and blamed himself painfully.

Things must be stimulated and forced to achieve something.

The standard of sage is really superb. It requires people to fight against nature every minute, which really hits the nail on the head and gouges out their hearts, so it is difficult to persist, but Zeng Guofan persisted. Why?

The diary written by Zeng Guofan after the 22nd year of Daoguang (1842) 10/day is very similar to that written by modern people in Weibo. As we know, a Weibo is one hundred and forty words, and Zeng Guofan's diary is not long, which is about one or two hundred words a day. The key is to let friends read it every once in a while, so that everyone can make comments, just like the thread below Weibo today.

Why did you show your diary to your friends? Because the external force is far greater than the internal force. Things must be stimulated and forced to achieve something. Everyone's willpower is limited, and there are blind spots in self-supervision, which is not easy to be thorough, but everyone has self-esteem, so it is often the most effective to supervise themselves through friends and teachers.

Zeng Guofan insisted on this habit all his life. Later, he left Beijing to take troops abroad, copied diaries regularly and sent them back to his hometown to show to his brothers, sons and nephews. One is to set an example for them, and the other is to let them supervise themselves. In this way, by keeping a diary, Zeng Guofan's temperament and habits are changing day by day.

Zeng Guofan's first success on the road of learning to be a saint was to give up smoking.

Zeng Guofan smoked for a long time. Xiangzhong cigarette tastes very spicy and full of energy. When he studies, he always sticks to his pipe all day. Before he was thirty, he tried to give up smoking twice, but both failed.

After determined to turn over a new leaf, Zeng Guofan vowed to quit smoking: "After the guests went, I was in a daze every day. Because I ate too many cigarettes, I vowed never to eat cigarettes again, because I destroyed my cigarette bag. " Eat more cigarettes and you will be enlightened! "

Quitting smoking for many years is a painful thing for anyone. On the second day of quitting smoking, Zeng Guofan began to wander without a master and fidgety. Say you're like "losing your breasts" It is quite accurate to compare quitting smoking to weaning a baby.

But like other things in Zeng Guofan's life, once he made up his mind, he never gave in. No matter how painful he is, he just doesn't want to touch the smoking set again. A month later, he wrote in his diary: "I quit smoking, just for a month." Now is a bad day! "

Zeng Guofan was proud of his success in quitting smoking all his life and used it as an example to educate his children. Many years later, he mentioned it to his younger brother as an example of "nothing is static".