Zeng Guofan is proficient in the art of recognizing people, many people have heard of it, he once wrote a "Ice Book", the content of which is how to observe and judge a person's true character and character from the details, and to determine whether this person can become a big thing and so on. However, in the implementation of family life, this art has not played much role, such as when he married his daughter, the situation was full of situations.
It is reasonable to say that the daughter is the intimate little cotton jacket of the parents, the family style is rigorous, the daughters who are taught are gentle and quiet, there should be a woman in the family, and it is not difficult to choose a good son-in-law. However, Zeng Guofan was familiar with reading subsets of scripture history from an early age, strictly adhering to feudal ethics, and choosing a son-in-law also had a set of criteria: he must be the son of a fellow countryman or friend with high moral character, and he was raised to understand the situation.
Zeng Guofan had a total of 5 daughters: Zeng Jijing, Zeng Jiyao, Zeng Jichen, Zeng Jichun, and Zeng Jifen. Of these 5 daughters, only the youngest daughter, Zeng Jifen, has achieved longevity and a happy and peaceful married life, and the first four have died early after getting married. One of the most regrettable is the eldest daughter Zeng Jijing, who was engaged to Yuan Bingzhen, the son of her father's friend Yuan Fangying, at the age of 6, and married smoothly when she grew up.
However, after Zeng Jijing passed through the door, he found that her husband had married a beautiful concubine before marrying his wife, and there were many red and pink confidants outside, he did not like to read, did not seek progress, and was very cold to himself. In fact, this is not a problem with Zeng Guofan's xiangshu, but his father-in-law Yuan Fangying is knowledgeable and rich in books but is not good at educating his children, when he was a child, he looked at the smart and lovely Yuan Bingzhen, and when he grew up, he became a playboy who was addicted to drinking, spending money indiscriminately, and specialized in selling his father's books.
Zeng Guofan had heard about the situation of his son-in-law before marrying his daughter, but at that time his friend Yuan Fangying had died, and the situation of the Yuan family was not as good as before, and he was afraid that the world would say that he was poor and loved the rich and repented of marriage, and he was not willing to stop his friend, so he still married his daughter. As a result, it is conceivable that Zeng Jijing watched her husband spend days and days drinking, going in and out of the Qinglou, and losing his temper with her cold face, and could only wash his face with tears every day, and he really couldn't stand it, so he told his brother about it.
These situations reached Zeng Guofan's ears, and he felt that his son-in-law was just a little unruly, and he put him around, and he would definitely be able to become a man again in the long run. When Zeng Jijing was 22 years old, the couple went to Zeng Guofan together, and Zeng Guofan invited a famous teacher to teach yuan Bingzhen to teach him learning, but Yuan Bingzhen looked lazy all day, and what Mr. Zeng said went in his left ear into his right ear, and when Zeng Guofan asked him a question, Yuan Bingzhen did not know three questions.
After a long time, Zeng Guofan was also impatient. He thought that since his son-in-law liked to run outside, he simply let him go to Xuzhou Grain Station to take up a post, but he did not expect that Yuan Bingzhen's performance after arriving in Xuzhou surprised him even more: Yuan Bingzhen was bold and arrogant, and even embezzled 600 taels of silver, ran amok, instructed people around him to bully civilians, and went in and out of the wind and moon place all day, drunk.
Zeng Guofan was so angry that he taught his son-in-law a lesson and sent him back, and announced that he would henceforth break off relations with Yuan Bingzhen. Zeng Jijing thought that she could have a peaceful birthday in her mother's house from now on, but her father, who strictly abided by ethics and morality, told her that although Yuan Bingzhen was not a tool, she had already become a member of the Yuan family, so she should abide by the way of women and stay with her husband for a lifetime.
Zeng Jijing knew that he could not change his father's heart, so he had to return to her in-laws with her husband in tears. But since then, the in-laws have regarded her as a thorn in the flesh, after all, Yuan Bingzhen has committed suicide once before because of Zeng Guofan's reprimand, but he has not succeeded. As a result, Zeng Jijing was depressed and extremely stressed, and died at the age of 29.
In fact, Zeng Jijing's marriage is a bit like Jia Yingchun in "Dream of the Red Chamber", they are found to be in the fire pit after getting married, crying with their mother's family but not getting shelter, as long as they abide by the women's way, from one end to the end, and say "This is your life." Zeng Guofan also felt that her daughter's tragedy was her own life, but in fact, it was himself who caused all this to happen, and had nothing to do with her fate.