Zeng Guofan, a famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty, was a well-known politician, strategist, and literary scholar in modern China, and the Xiang Army he founded was also famous. Zeng Guofan held a strong army, the north and south fought for more than ten years, for the Qing court everywhere to quell chaos and counterinsurgency, stabilize the place, obviously have the opportunity and conditions to become an emperor, but four times took the initiative to give up, in the face of the persuasion of the people around him, Zeng Guofan was not moved.
The first time was in 1854, when the Xiang Army had just been established. At that time, there was a person named Wang Minyun, who was very talented and learned, came to Zeng Guofan's side and often discussed poetry and songs with Zeng Guofan. Once, the two were chatting, and Zeng Guofan said that he liked Han Yuliu Zongyuan's article, but Wang Minyun did not agree.
He told Zeng Guofan that what you should study was actually Wei Wu Cao Cao's poetry. Zeng Guofan did not understand it at first, until he sent Wang Minyun away and thought about it carefully, he suddenly understood that Wang Minyun meant that he could learn from Cao Cao's deeds and replace them with the imperial court, even claiming absurdity.
The second time was after the Xiang army captured Anqing. The victory in the battle should naturally be celebrated, but at this time the Xianfeng Emperor died. At this time, the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan was very powerful, and it had made many achievements, and the last line of defense of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also destroyed at this time, and the great opportunity was in front of it, so someone advised to advance.
Li Yuandu wrote a couplet to him, "The prince has no seed, the emperor has the truth"; his student, Peng Yulin, who was the commander of the water division, also wrote to Zeng Guofan: "There is no master in the southeast half of the wall, does the teacher care?" Zeng Guofan frowned after reading it, and destroyed all these things.
The third time was when Zeng Guofan's younger brother Zeng Guoquan instructed Wang Minyun to persuade him to advance. At that time, Wang Minyun already had some seniority, and served as an aide under Zeng Guofan, who instructed him to explain the current situation to Zeng Guofan in detail, and now that the emperor was young and the two empresses in the palace were in charge of political affairs, the imperial court was weak. If you ascend to a high place and join forces with the Taiping Army, you can take the place of the Qing Dynasty.
Wang Minyun spoke alone for half a day, and Zeng Guofan was silent, only dipping his fingertips in tea and writing non-stop on the desktop. Wang Minyun fixed his eyes on it, and Zeng Guofan wrote the "delusional" word of "delusion". That is to say, Zeng Guofan resolutely refused in his heart, feeling that this person was too arrogant in this matter.
The fourth time was after Zeng Guofan completely defeated the Taiping Army and attacked Nanjing. At the beginning, the Xianfeng Emperor had said that those who attacked Nanjing could be crowned king, but now the Qing court did not fulfill this promise. Zeng Guofan's younger brother and his generals were all angry and gathered at Zeng Guofan's home to "discuss important matters together."
Zeng Guofan observed the color of his words and had already anticipated their intentions, so he wrote a sentence and handed it to his brother, turned around and left. The crowd looked forward and wrote: "Relying on the sky to illuminate the countless flowers of the sea, the flowing water and the mountains know themselves." The crowd had different looks, knowing that no temptation could impress Zeng Guofan, so they had to disperse.
This sentence actually reflects Zeng Guofan's adherence to the integrity of his subjects. He was a Confucian from elementary school, and his heart was deeply rooted in Confucianism, so even if he had made great achievements in battle, he still always advocated self-denial and self-cultivation, and never wanted to go further. Therefore, even though he had 300,000 heavy troops in his hands and had the capital to sweep across the world, Zeng Guofan gave up the opportunity to become emperor four times.