Among the characters of the late Qing Dynasty, the most difficult to deal with in evaluation should be Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan.
Especially the latter, it may be such a figure who is more cloudy than Li Hefei. As for Li, everyone's differences are nothing more than the question of how to view the merits and demerits of right and wrong, once the positions are different, whether they are the "biggest traitors" or "the last pillar of the late Qing Dynasty", the evaluation can be like ice charcoal, like a heavenly abyss. But Li Hongzhang's character and face are at least very clear.
As for Zeng Guofan, what kind of person he really is, it is always vague. He seems to be an all-rounder, but also the most performative personality, and he likes to walk freely through the masquerade ball all his life, and he is good at dancing with long sleeves. His city government is too deep, loyal and thick is full of gloom, never hidden, and always too humble, people around him feel that they can't understand him, unlike Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, Zhang Crazy, Shang Pi, or shang, the characteristics of people are always open-minded.
Hunan people are known for their park thick and honesty, and Teacher Zeng may be a special case. He seemed to be in a circle, and everyone around him that day thought he was good, and everyone was afraid of him. And his career, that is also elegant and bloody at all, one minute is still kind and kind-eyed, talking about the way of Kong Meng's benevolence, the next second he will give orders to slaughter the city quickly, indiscriminately kill women and children innocent, without hesitation, without any guilt, that kind of killing and brutality is no less than his opponent Hong Xiuquan.
Such a person, do you say he is a saint or a demon? Read a little more Zeng Guofan, probably think he is terrible. All in all, Zeng Wen is a very complex "problem figure".
For Teacher Zeng, no one should deny his knowledge and ability. His controversy is not here.
In recent years, Zeng Guofan has really been the darling of "success studies" in society. His writings, collections of essays, family letters, family training, diaries, quotations, and aphorisms, have been exhausted and fished, like a tidal wave, and are densely scattered throughout the country's large and small bookstores and street table stalls.
Judging from the resume of Teacher Zeng, he is indeed a great "inspirational brother". Born as a peasant boy, but a scholar, 39 years old as a second product waiter, 42 years old to become the commander of the Xiang Army, the first time to hold the military power to reverse the rebels to be invincible, and successfully suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that everyone could not figure out, holding Qiankun for 10 years. In the 50 years of the late Qing Dynasty, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the political situation in the south and even the military power of the Qing court was actually controlled by him and a group of Xianghuai military leaders brought out by him.
As a student, he rewrote the history of military power in the late Qing Dynasty and also reversed the political pattern of the Qing Dynasty. When he first walked out of the Hanlin Academy and got up to participate in stopping the rebellion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was not without justice, and it was also the most successful, and it was impossible to return, and it was already successful. He is really a figure who "can see, speak, and do", and his skills of the foreign kings of the state and the inner saints of self-denial and retribution are quite a bit of divine and clear taste.
Not only that, but his thoughts and actions also seem to be called "the master of the world". His "Letter of the Family of Zeng Guofan", which personally recorded the 30-year political career from Daoguang 30 to around the tenth year of Tongzhi, not only did not have ambition, but showed a strong academic attainment, especially moral cultivation kung fu, highlighting a perfect personality.
Such a character is rare in a hundred years, and only Wang Yangming can compare with him in 600 years, how can you and I not call him a master?
Therefore, Zeng Guofan's problems, complexities and controversies are not in learning and achievement. I think that, in simple terms, some people in later generations hate him so much, focusing on his character and words and deeds.
Zeng Guofan and his people have been deliberately trying to be moral models all their lives. In Hunan, he started his family in the name of defending tradition, and everywhere he regarded himself as a Confucian famous sect, full of moral articles, full of paper of benevolence and righteousness, whether it was for his family or the soldiers below, repeatedly instilled, it was the principle of loyalty and filial piety, compassion and joy. Listening to his words and reading his books, he is really more like Confucius than Confucius, like the reincarnation of a saint.
But such a person does have a diametrically opposed side to him. This aspect of his personality, at least in two major aspects, is completely contrary to the Confucian creed: first, the external is cruel, it is indiscriminate killing, it is bloodthirsty, and it is fierce; second, on the inside, it is hypocrisy, it is cunning, it is deceitful and ruthless, and it is the kind of Confucian who is better at covering up than Gongsun Hong.
If you understand Zeng Guofan a little more comprehensively, and read his family letters and anthologies with the historical facts of the events he has done, you will really feel that he is a pervert with an extremely dual personality and even schizophrenia. The famous essayist Wang ChongLu commented on Zeng Guofan and sent a sentence of "two words of meritorious name, with a broken heart for a lifetime", which is simply the most appropriate evaluation of Teacher Zeng.
He also said more directly, "As long as you open the "Complete Works of Zeng Wenzheng" and browse it, it is not difficult for you to come to the conclusion that this is an uncompromising and authentic tragic figure, a poor worm who has been in purgatory all his life, whose soul is ready to be tormented, and who has experienced boundless pain."
Professors such as Yi Huili and Yang Guoqiang are famous scholars who specialize in modern history in the late Qing Dynasty, and even they all say that Zeng Guofan and his people are, in a sense, a complete "hypocrite" who is complete.
For example, in modern times, he talks about "benevolence and morality" the most, but in fact, he kills the most, and the blood on his hands is the most difficult to wash away. Zeng Guofan's two nicknames, "Zeng Sage", are "Zeng Shaved Head", slaughtering countless cities in his lifetime, old and weak women and children do not let go, and his heart is fierce and murderous, almost like a demon descending into the world.
At the beginning, when he attacked Nanjing, he earnestly taught his brother that "Kecheng should kill more, and we must not fake compassion and mistake big things." When Zeng Guoquan returned from the letter, he heard that "all the slaughter was exhausted, and none of them slipped through the net, and they were almost happy", and for this kind of indiscriminate killing, he was happy to cut meat and drink. Even Zeng Guoquan had a heart of compassion, he did not know at all, the diary of that night was light. He wrote "Love Folk Song" for the Xiang Army, but how did he actually treat the people, not a word, a butcher knife, a rolling head, where is there a little compassion? The inconsistencies in the appearance are really chilling. Compared with such a person, what kind of cruelty is Fa Ziying?
Now people like to read his family letters, in fact, they don't know that he intends to put on a show. He prides himself on being upright and upright, but he is always on guard against everyone. According to Yang Guoqiang's book "The Wandering Between Righteousness and Merit", he even wrote his family letters, all of which were backed up, one for the public, one for his relatives, and he also kept one, and it was really unprecedented hardship to be hypocritical to this point.
Even Wang Tao, who had contact at the same time, talked behind his back and felt that he was not sincere enough, and the split between words and deeds was too serious. His aide Wang Minyun also misrepresented his hypocrisy.
Today, he is more known and respected for his family letters. But he never had the same heart when he wrote those family letters, and it was largely part of his many performance props.
On the same day, after his Xiang army reverted to Wuhan, the Qing court was very wary of him, and the Xianfeng Emperor issued an exclamation, "Went to half of Hong Xiuquan, came a Zeng Guofan", which scared Teacher Zeng to urinate and urinate on the spot. To a large extent, it was this anxiety that gave birth to his family letter.
His family letters, the words are willing, the truth is moving, but most of them are expressing their position. On the spot, after defeating the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he had two major jobs, on the one hand, to cut himself off the Xiang Army, and on the other hand, to continue to write family letters, and specially published them. The reason is that he wants to confess that he will always be a loyal dog of the Qing court and seek self-protection.
This family letter teaches people to be sincere and righteous, but in fact, where are the words of sincerity? When I read "The Book of Zeng Guofan", I often have to laugh, and even more laugh at how ridiculous it is for his "fans" who embrace this book as a Bible and do not hesitate to imitate it everywhere.
In the human world, the smiling tiger is a more terrifying animal than a real villain. Myself, I will try to look at Teacher Zeng truthfully, but I will never like such a character in my heart. To tell the truth, a person like him, most like the real version of Yue Buqun, lives in history, I can still hate to respond; if I live around, I must only respect and stay away.
Overall, if you really want to evaluate him calmly, I naturally don't say that I want to completely deny him. Teacher Zeng's thoughts and actions are both great and beautiful.
The people who have always learned from him are both good and evil, and the direction of learning is also various, and it is also not easy to blindly criticize. If you can tend to the path of goodness, don't become a hypocrite, just take what you need.
At the beginning, Mr. Mao called himself "Serving Zeng Wenzheng alone", and what he looked up to was the essence of his thoughts; while Jiang Gong's first-class steps also tended to be Master Zeng, almost imitating his unique kung fu of shaving people's heads and buying people's hearts. At that time, he set up the Lushan Military Training Regiment for the purpose of "suppressing the Communists", and issued the "Quotations of Zeng Wenzheng" as a teaching material, and his heart was also here.
Now that people learn from Zeng Guofan, the biggest drawback may be that honest people are more sour and rotten, and smart people use power and opportunities to change that set of tricks, and the more they are not correct. Thousands of teachings teach people to seek truth, thousands of learning to learn to be real people, to fully understand the thoughts of Zeng Teacher and his people, but I am afraid that it is necessary to be cautious and attach a little vision.