Great Qing Dynasty ZhongxingChen, Far East Washington
Speaking of this Zeng Guofan, in the era of our education, it was a proper big bad man, and his nickname was "Zeng Shaved Head", which means to kill people like hemp, and he was the representative of all bad terms such as decay, backwardness, feudalism, cruelty and false Taoism.
However, although we fixed him among the bad guys, we also vaguely knew that not only another bad man, Chiang Kai-shek, admired him very much, but our great leader Chairman Mao also admired him, but at that time, he could not see the relevant information and did not dare to say anything.
It was only later that I saw Chairman Mao's appraisal, and the old man said: "To the people close to you, serve Zeng Wenzheng alone." Looking at the battle of Hong and Yang, it is perfect, so that today it can be changed, and it can be as complete as the other? He called Zeng Guofan "the most powerful figure in the landlord class." It seems that there is such a contradiction, a proletarian revolutionary, but admired a powerful figure of the landlord class, this Zeng Guofan must have superiority beyond ordinary people.
Zeng Guofan (曾国藩), zi Bohan (Chinese: 曾国藩; pinyin: Zhāng zhīng), was a politician, strategist, theoretician, and writer of modern China, and the founder and commander of the Xiang Army. Together with Hu Linyi, he was called "Zeng Hu", together with Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong, he was called the "Four Famous Ministers" of the Late Qing Dynasty, and was an official to the Viceroy of Liangjiang, the Viceroy of Zhili, the Scholar of Wuyingdian University, and the Marquis of Yiyong of the First Rank, who died at the age of 61 and was known as Wenzheng.
His life was divided from the Xianfeng and Tongzhi dynasties, roughly divided into the early stage of the Examination Examination and the Jingguan career, the middle period of regiment training and the construction of the Xiang Army, and the bloody battle with the Taiping Army until the capture of Tianjing, and the later period was the automatic dissolution of the Xiang Army, and the official Shoucheng until the end of the good.
As a famous courtier of the Qing Dynasty, his life's glory and disgrace were all related to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which for the Qing court was called the merit of continuing his life, no matter which angle the future generations evaluated him, the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the main line of his life; after the founding of the Country, because he advocated "revolution is innocent, rebellion is justified", Hong Yang's party is regarded as a heroic figure, then Zeng Guofan as the opposite will naturally be unable to escape the responsibility of reaction.
Dr. Hale of the United States called him "the Washington of the Far East", which is from the traditional point of view, that is, to maintain the interests of the country and the efficacy of the government, it is affirmative of all people who are conducive to national stability, so it is natural for Zeng Guofan to receive such an honor.
Zeng Guofan family was born in general, about belong to the well-off family, it is said that his ancestors are Zongsheng Zengzi, this is a bit difficult to verify, Quan Xinzhi. When he was a child, he was not smart, he could be said to be a stupid child, a broken show only took the exam seven times, until the age of 23, he was reluctantly admitted to the county's penultimate place, and the next road to the imperial examination was also extremely difficult, falling in the first place many times, and only at the age of 29 was squeezed into the official field with the gift of the third class.
As we all know, there are three grades of the top of the imperial examination, one of the first and three, the first rank of the list and the tanhua, this is called the jinshi and the first; the number of the second is slightly more, called the jinshi; the third is more, called the same jinshi. I have seen many people think that the top three are the top three and the tanhua, and the entrance examination is collectively referred to as the jinshi and the first, which is not correct.
It is said that Zeng Guofan's achievements are already very difficult, at least much higher than the current Tsinghua Peking University, but if compared with Li Hongzhang and Liang Qichao, who are known for their talents, this is not a big deal, is not a couplet called "washing the feet of Mrs. Ru, giving tongjinshi birth".
However, Zeng Guofan's stupidity was widely recognized, such as Zuo Zongtang and others said that he was "not known for his talent" in his life, even if he himself admitted that he was stupid, and later his basic method of warfare against the Taiping Army was "to form a hard village, fight a stupid battle" like a python, and entangle the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom alive.
The "stupidity" of Zeng Guofan can actually be considered as such, he is a simple-minded, very simple person. It always seems strange to use this word on him, but the real Zeng Guofan is really very simple, he reads the sages' books hard, demands himself by the standards of saints, and also demands others, even emperors, by such standards.
He was a Beijing official for ten years after passing the entrance examination, and his official fortunes were quite smooth, and his simple way of thinking was always with him. It is said that it is not easy for him to be famous in the official field, but the strange thing is that he has moved seven times in ten years, and has been promoted to ten levels in a row, and at the age of 40, the official residence is from Erpin, which is equivalent to a deputy ministerial-level official, maybe he is still very capable of doing things.
He has always been strict with himself in the way of the sages. He was bent on learning to be a saint, and often mingled with a group of Qingliu such as Wu Ren and treated the world as a Taoist. He was not accustomed to this, despised that, was very ashamed of the hypocrisy and sleekness of the official arena, and made himself like Qu Yuan, "everyone in the world is cloudy and I am awake alone", and finally even had some unpleasant quarrels with the emperor, until he was "worried" because he returned home to "Ding Worry" and because of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then set up a regiment to train, which was later the famous Xiang Army.
Of course, this armed force must be uniformly controlled by the imperial court to resist the Taiping Army, which is mainly the two things of people and money, and people are recruited by themselves, but this money is not produced by the imperial court, nor can it be afforded, so it has to be pushed to be solved by localities or individuals.
This period of time was the most tragic and urgent for Zeng Guofan, who led the army out of Xiangxiang to fight against the Taiping Army with his kind of "literary death, martial death battle", and the Confucian moral standard of being a man for the country, because he did not have the right to supervise, who was willing to use the grain money he had collected so hard to raise your "guest army", and the result was to hit a wall everywhere.
Zeng Guofan then used his right to have the so-called "special performance", complaining about this and participating in that, but people were crossed by him a lot, but more and more people were offended, and later, no one was willing to work with him.
So, he went back to his hometown "Ding You", this time for two years, in these two years, he reflected on himself, finally realized his own inadequacies in the world, he became proficient and rounded, if people say it is called "smooth", understand the rules, no longer the emperor and colleagues hard to deal with, even many scum officials are still polite, he has become an honest and trustworthy, amiable Confucian general.
His performance after the second time out of the mountain surprised everyone, very humble, throwing books everywhere for "pointers", which even made Hu Linyi and Guo Songtao deeply worried, they thought that Zeng Guofan was seeking perfection and lost the original Fang Gang qi.
In fact, it is not that Zeng Guofan has become secular, he is still the original Zeng Guofan, he has not been forced to degenerate by reality, from an iron-boned scribe to a bureaucratic servant, he has just become more rounded, learned to live in the world, nothing more.
Zeng Guofan has never given up demanding himself by the standards of a saint in his heart, but he does not demand of others in this way, this is the biggest difference between him and before, he is round inside and outside, he is not entangled in the big things, and he has a long-term vision, and he not only adheres to his own ideas in everything, but also knows how to be roundabout and tactful; he does not make a flattering move to achieve the goal, but also can make others feel that doing things for him is a win-win thing.
Zeng Guofan was a Qing official, he did not leave property to his descendants in his lifetime, after his death, there was only a house in his home and a house of books, and at that time when greed was prevalent, he cleaned himself up, which was his bottom line.
He lived a simple life, dressed simply, even a little untrimmed, he did not allow more than one servant in the house, the female relatives in his family had to do a lot of things according to the homework schedule every day, all his clothes were from the hands of his wife and daughter, including his daughter-in-law, all the female dependents could not rest from morning to night.
In the Nanjing Governor's Palace, every night is such a scene, Zeng Guofan reads official affairs with candles, while all the female relatives in the family light lamps and weaves cloth on the side, making various female reds, which should be said to be a very moving and rare picture in Chinese history.
However, he wanted to receive gifts again, and the old subordinate Bao Chao brought dozens of boxes of gifts to wish him a happy birthday, and he accepted a small hat; the local officials brought a large number of antique calligraphy and paintings to give gifts, and he picked a few straw mats. This practice is called "not to embarrass others", he never showed himself as a clean official in his heart, acted in a low-key manner, and left the silver of tens of thousands of small vaults when he left office, so that his son went to the capital to quietly disperse.
Zeng Guofan is most afraid of others to regard him as a clean official, he never wants to become a moral benchmark like Hai Rui did in those years, because he knows that once that will become a public enemy in the official field, no one is willing to work with you, he once said that "especially do not want to get the name of a clean official", he follows all the clear rules and unspoken rules of the official field, and becomes a "clean official" who is clear inside and outside, and is round inside and outside.
The most difficult thing is that after conquering Tianjing, he did not take credit, took the initiative to dismiss hundreds of thousands of Xiang troops, leaving only more than 10,000 people to suppress the Twist Army, and all of them were handed over to the Manchu and Mongolian generals to lead the army, and he himself retreated to the second line, which made the Qing court greatly relieved, which was also the most fundamental reason why he was able to die well.
He knew that people were making good use of each other, and the most common thing in the official arena was to dump each other and be jealous of the stage, but Zeng Guofan did the opposite, and his staff and protégés were numerous, and under his promotion, they all achieved feats that matched their status, such as Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, etc. Even if the reputation of these people was equal to his later, he had no jealousy, which was extremely rare in the official circles of the previous dynasties.
I have seen many people commenting on why Zeng Guofan did not take advantage of the destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Xiang army was strong, and could overthrow the Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop and restore Han rule, but instead was loyal to foreign tribes, which was a typical chief Traitor Yunyun.
First of all, this relationship with the traitors is not half a cent, and the Manchu rule has long been recognized by the Chinese people, and it does not make sense to say that the han traitors, except for those who rebel, then the people of the whole country are traitors. And a scholar like Zeng Guofan was a firm believer in Confucian culture, and loyalty and filial piety were always the first priority, and how he could overthrow the imperial court he was trying to protect was simply impossible.
This is just as absurd as some people harshly criticize "why did Qin Shi Huang not liberate all the slaves in the Qin state and realize socialism", evaluating a historical figure must be considered in the context of the time, and Zeng Guofan, who grew up under the influence of traditional Confucianism, achieved the ultimate in his cognitive range, Kuang Junfuguo, this alone is worthy of our respect.
The concept of the subjugation of the country and the subjugation of the world has been recognized by posterity since Gu Yanwu, for that time, the subjugation of the country is nothing more than a change of surname, or even a change of nationality to rule, which has nothing to do with the common people, the key is to be good to the common people, who is the emperor does not matter; but if the world is lost, it means that the people can not survive, lost the basis of survival, it is absolutely impossible, and the Qing government at that time did not decay to the point of death under the heavens.
Secondly, the people who said this focused on the comparison of military strength, and it is undeniable that according to the source of troops that the Xiang Army could mobilize at that time against the Manchu Qing, it was more than enough, and 80% of the soldiers who could fight in the world were directly or indirectly brought out by him. To learn that Zhao Kuangyin to wear a yellow robe, at least in theory is feasible.
But we have to see the other side, even if Zeng Guofan has ideas, and those under him, all of whom are loyal to the king, will certainly not come with you Tosa Zeng to do this rebellious thing. And he himself is also a forbidden area for this, lest he avoid it.
According to ye shi records, when Li Xiucheng was captured at that time, the two had exchanges, and King Zhong proposed to use all the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom plus the Xiang army to jointly drive out the Tartars and restore China; the truth of this matter is difficult to distinguish, we only know that Zeng Guofan killed Li Xiucheng in a hurry without asking for instructions after 16 days of capturing him.
If we can understand why Bai Qi and Xiang Yu killed so many soldiers who laid down their weapons, we may be able to understand what Zeng Guofan did, war is cruel, jade burning is the most likely thing to happen in war, not to mention that the opponent is fierce, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is revitalized by religion.
Zeng Guofan also never hid his views on this point, and he said in a letter to his younger brother Zeng Guoquan: "Although Zhou Kong was born today, he will not be able to destroy the reason." Even if you plot to destroy it, you will not be able to regret killing more", think about it, if you do extraordinary things in extraordinary times, will Bai Qi put those four hundred thousand descendants back and take up arms against the Qin State?
Zeng Guofan died while serving as the governor of Liangjiang, but a year before his death, he was accused of treason because he was transferred to deal with the Tianjin teaching case, which is actually no wonder to him, the Qing government at this time has long been a internal and external trouble, in order not to offend the Western powers, a zeng guofan who has strictly demanded himself in the way of sages all his life finally filed a gun for the imperial court, and he himself was also very unhappy, and wrote in the recital of the imperial court that "guilt gods, external shame and clear discussion." He died the following year.
In the different periods behind him, he has always been an important figure who has been concerned by the world, his life is full of legend, as a person who is very mediocre in both family and talent, how can he rise in that era, from a cloth to a humerus minister, so he has always been carefully studied by posterity as a textbook of success.
No matter from which angle he studied, although Zeng Guofan is said to be a person with different opinions and wisdom, one thing should be common, that is, to admit that he is a successful person, perhaps this is what Chairman Mao means by "the most powerful person", especially his principle of inner saint and outer king, inner and outer circles, this is also beneficial to life, although some people say that he is an old traitor or a hypocrite, if he can learn one or two, it will be beneficial for a lifetime.
"There is merit in the taishang, followed by meritorious service, and then there is a promise, although it has not been abolished for a long time, this is called immortality." If from this point of view, Zeng Guofan is not lacking in anything, he cultivated himself and his family, ruled the army and the country, and achieved Sanli in his lifetime, this perseverance and courage are exciting, so it makes sense for posterity to call him a saint.
As for zeng guofan from not understanding the rules to understanding the rules, in fact, it means that while strictly demanding himself, he has a tolerant heart for the various "laws" that prevail in the world, and does not embarrass people; no matter how big a person's ability is, it is limited, the key is to see how to mobilize the ability of all people related to him and fight for the common goal together.