Inspirational emperor Zeng Guofan from cynicism to official talent

Zeng Guofan has been changing all his life. He changed from "angry youth" to "old fox". He was an angry youth in his early years, so he hit a wall everywhere and was often scolded. After many twists and turns in middle age, he finally realized that the hidden rules of China society could not be swept away at once. Only when necessary, smooth and soft, can we successfully tide over the difficulties.

Personality is "split" and full of contradictions.

Zeng Guofan is indeed full of contradictions.

The first contradiction is clumsiness and cleverness. He took the county exam at the age of fourteen and took it seven times before and after. At the age of 23, he was admitted to the scholar, the second from the bottom. Zuo always looked down on Zeng Guofan and criticized him mercilessly for "no talent" and "no talent" many times. Li Hongzhang, who was a student, also said to his face that he was too "slow in Confucianism". Zeng Guofan himself said that he was slow in reading and doing things: "I am slow and others can't finish reading." If someone else sets it instantly, he can't wait for a few minutes. On the other hand, Zeng Guofan is a very "smart" person. He is an outstanding strategist and strategist. He founded the Xiang Army with superhuman courage and put forward an extremely correct strategy of "building a strategy by taking advantage of the situation" to pacify the Taiping Army. He is very good at judging the situation. After the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, his fame and fortune reached its peak, but he also realized the opportunity of his prosperity and decline, and resolutely abolished his power base-Xiang Army. Throughout the ages, there are many heroes who are good at grasping the advance and retreat like him.

The second contradiction is sincerity and hypocrisy. Zeng Guofan was sincere and pretentious all his life, claiming to handle everything with integrity. Indeed, many times, he "would rather others take advantage of me than me." He said, "mortals come with vanity, and I go with sincerity." Over time, hypocrites tend to be sincere. "Driven by Yu Liang's emotions, Zuo Yisheng refused to accept Zeng Guofan, starting with cynicism and finally returning good for evil, but Zeng Guofan never fought back in his life.

But there is also a lot of evidence that he is "hypocritical". His counselor Zhao Liewen recorded such an interesting story:

In the ninth year of Xianfeng, a mysterious figure appeared in Tongcheng, with several followers. He claims to be an officer from Beijing and has been to various places. He talked in a secretive and cheerful way. An official gave him a gift and he accepted it. He took the yellow paper as a letter and ordered a magistrate to send it to Zeng Guofan's camp. Zeng Guofan once learned the beauty of the law of "immortality" and didn't want to "raise a prison" because of it, so he put this letter aside and "don't ask, don't investigate". This person saw that Zeng Guofan could not be blackmailed, but instead "sent a letter" to the official document of Governor Huguang. The official document was interrogated by himself, "not true, not delving into it." The man "didn't know his whereabouts later."

In his later years, Zeng Guofan, like other scheming bureaucrats, skillfully used the word "exhibition" in officialdom and pushed away many thorny things. Due to the wage problem, the local fiscal deficit is large. Zeng Guofan created a "continuous succession" with the word "exhibition", which was delayed this year and the year after, and finally ended. Sometimes he gives this tactic to his subordinates. For example, in his letter to Wan Qichen, he said, "It is the secret of officialdom to collect the old debts over the years, put them in deficit and give them an exhibition."

The third contradiction is cleanliness and filth. Zeng Guofan is an honest official. His purity is sincere and he has a clear conscience. In the existing data, we can't find any record of Zeng Guofan putting any public funds into his pocket. He lived a simple life all his life. "There is no meat to eat at night." In his later years, his shoes and socks were made by his wife and daughter-in-law. Until his death, he had only twenty-two thousand silver deposits, which was really quite clean in the late Qing Dynasty. On the other hand, Zeng Guofan also tried his best to abide by the rules and hidden rules of officialdom. When he goes out for inspection, he visits guests and drinks every day. What he did was no different from that of an ordinary bureaucrat. I pay tribute to Beijing officials every year. I gave them 14200 likes when I left Beijing. Even for reimbursement, it also paid a "departmental fee" of 82,000 to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. In order to support these expenses, he set up a "small treasury" among his finance ministers. The "anti-smuggling money" sent by Salt Transportation Company and the "public money" sent by Shanghai Customs and Huaibei Customs are the sources of Zeng Guofan's "small treasury".

The fourth contradiction is atheism and superstition. Zeng Guofan has said many times: "I don't believe in ghosts and gods all my life." "Yu Pingping doesn't believe in Feng Shui the most." But more words and records prove that he is quite superstitious. He carried out many superstitious activities in his life. Practiced almost all superstitions: he is proficient in physiognomy and has a lot of physiognomy practice. He knows divination, and often divines good and bad luck by himself. He believed in dreams, Wisdom Fofo Agbo and Guan Yu, and he suffered a disaster. As for Zeng Guofan's "don't believe in Feng Shui", it is full of twists and turns.

All kinds of contradictions in Zeng Guofan also led to the fuzziness of his judgment and evaluation. Some people say that he is the scum of the nation and the chief culprit. Some people say that he is an absolute saint. More people think that he is a wily bureaucrat, bent on promoting to a higher position and making a fortune.

From "Fenqing" to "Laoqiao"

In fact, Zeng Guofan, who presents various faces in contradictions, is the real and living Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan is a politician, a strategist and a thinker, but first of all, he is a person, a person with daily necessities, a person who has struggled, struggled, conflicted and contradicted all his life, and a person with both soul and body temperature. By observing how he made concessions between ideal and reality, we can feel Zeng Guofan's hesitation and firmness, restraint and wit, clumsiness and shrewdness in the face of various difficulties, distinguish his "righteousness" and "human desire" more deeply, and truly appreciate his personality charm.

Zeng Guofan has been changing all his life. In his early years, stainless steel company was a cynical, single-minded, selfish, cynical and arrogant company. Single means of doing things, tough style, pure and firm, indomitable. Therefore, we hit a wall everywhere and are often accused. Not only to his colleagues, but also to his brother. He is always a pair of "only I am right" and "you all fail to live up to expectations", criticizing lessons everywhere, so that Quan Guo and Guo Hua went to Beijing to look for him and went home soon. After many twists and turns in middle age, he finally realized that the hidden rules of China society could not be swept away at once. Only when necessary, smooth and soft, can we successfully tide over the difficulties. Only when all rivers run into the sea and all evils are unforgivable can we mobilize all our forces and reach the other side of victory. After this reflection, he changed from an angry youth to a disciple of Zhuangzi. He tried his best to accommodate those ugly officialdom survivors, putting himself in their shoes and understanding their difficulties. When communicating, he tried to woo and comfort them and "spit out benefits" when necessary. As a result, Hu Linyi said that he "gradually matured and lost the spirit of recovery." This worldly wisdom of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is like a duck to water in officialdom.

Zeng Guofan's "clumsiness" and "shrewdness" are not contradictory. It is the unique "clumsiness" that made Zeng Guofan's extraordinary shrewdness and cleverness. His philosophy is that a straight line is the shortest distance, simplicity is the most effective method, and the most clumsy is actually the cleverest. Therefore, he founded the Xiang Army, selected generals, and singled out those who were inarticulate and "rustic" because they were honest and simple, and less frivolous. Zeng Guofan was good at fighting stupid battles all his life. He made great efforts to study the enemy-enemy situation, combat deployment, logistics supply, how to rescue under unfavorable circumstances and so on. It was not until every link was calculated and figured out that he made up his mind to fight. Because of "stupidity", Zeng Guofan was modest in front of all knowledge and did not dare to have any prejudice. He has no preconceived ideas about any conclusion and always tries it himself. Only when he saw it with his own eyes can he draw a conclusion. In his later years, he changed from superstition to belief in fate. He believed in Feng Shui in his early years because several happy events happened at home after his grandmother was buried. Later, he didn't believe in Feng Shui, because he experienced several times that the "theory" of Feng Shui didn't match the "practice". Seeking truth from facts keeps his thoughts flowing, sharp and active.

Zeng Guofan

People in officialdom are duplicitous.