In the history of our country, many heroic figures have appeared, and these heroic figures have made great achievements in their respective fields. And in a certain field to achieve the ultimate, we usually give him a "saint", such as "poetry saint" Du Fu, "martial saint" Guan Yu, "painting saint" Wu Daozi and so on.
But so many of the "saints" that overwhelm us are confined to their respective realms, and no one can be called "all-saint", or the word "saint" with which we are more familiar. If "martial saint" refers to a person who has achieved the ultimate in martial arts, then "saint" naturally refers to a person who has achieved the ultimate in the whole aspect of being a human being and stands at the top of all heroes.
It is precisely because of such high standards that in many evaluations in our country, there have only been "two and a half" saints in the entire history of China. One is the old master Kong we are all familiar with, the other is Wang Yangming, a giant of psychological studies, and the remaining half is one of the representative figures of the foreign affairs movement, Zeng Guofan.
Why are Confucius and Wang Yangming both complete saints, while Zeng Guofan is "half"? This has to be judged by the criteria for evaluating saints. Mencius once said: "What is full is beauty, what is full and glorious is great, and what is large and transformed is holy." This is a criterion for evaluating saints.
The meaning of this sentence is that a person who is full of certain attainments in all aspects is beauty, and a person who is not only beautiful himself but can also display such beauty to be well known is great, and when he is big enough to educate all peoples and nurture all things, he can be called holy.
In addition, there is the standard of "three immortals". In the "Left Biography", there are three requirements of "morality, meritorious service, and speech", and they can be enduring in all three, which is for immortality. Those who can achieve "immortality" in these three aspects can be called "saints".
Needless to say, Confucius was admired by thousands of people, and the students around him all respected him very much, and first of all, there was no problem in "Lide". In terms of "meritorious service," Confucius was the first to open a private school, vigorously engage in education, and advocate "teaching without class," which was already a great achievement, which made the Spring and Autumn Period begin, and all countries in the country attached importance to the cultivation of talents and set up schools, making "a hundred schools of thought contending" and promoting the emergence of a flourishing trend of thought more than two thousand years ago.
In terms of "liyan", Confucius is the founder of Confucianism, and the core idea of "benevolence" has always influenced all the descendants of All Chinese people from all dynasties up to the son of heaven down to the people, laying the national spirit for the entire Chinese nation, and to this day, his "benevolence" thought and various words and deeds are still the objects of people's respect.
Confucius completely achieved the realm of "greatness and transformation". It can be seen that there is no problem in honoring Confucius as a "saint". As for Wang Yangming, he was born in 1472 and was the most prominent thinker of the Ming Dynasty. In terms of virtue, Wei Xi commented that he was the first person in virtue in three hundred years, which shows that Wang Yangming is supremely good and highly respected by people.
In terms of meritorious service and speech, Wang Yangming successively put forward the theories of "to conscience" and "unity of knowledge and action", and founded the "Yangming Mind Science". His theoretical knowledge broke the cheng zhu lixue, which was still rigid at that time, and cheng zhu lixue overemphasized "preserving heavenly reason and destroying people's desires", so that people's value was constantly degraded, and society lost its vitality.
The emergence of Wang Yangming not only revitalized the Ming Dynasty, but also his ideas have been passed down, but also influenced almost the entire East Asian cultural circle, and also achieved "great and transformation", and it is also deserved to be called a "saint".
Zeng Guofan, born in 1811, entered high school in 1838, and later he suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on the one hand, and from 1861 he devoted himself to the western affairs movement to save the survival. Cai Yi commented that Zeng Guofan led the soldiers as generously and benevolently as he treated his own children, which shows that Zeng Guofan has been very good at "Lide".
In 1861, after the beginning of the Western Affairs Movement, Zeng Guofan also actively participated in it, making great contributions to China's industrialization and scientific and technological progress. In 1865, with his efforts, he also completed the construction of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, which greatly enhanced the military strength of the late Qing Dynasty. Zeng Gong was diligent throughout his life, his merits were outstanding, and he was also very remarkable in "meritorious service".
But Zeng Guofan was called half a "saint", and in the end he lost on this "statement". Looking back now, we have the impression of Zeng Guofan as a General of the Qing Dynasty and a representative of foreign affairs, but we have no ideological memory of Zeng Guofan. In fact, Zeng Guofan had a deep study of Cheng Zhu Lixue, but it was not limited to Cheng Zhu Lixue, he also studied Song Ming Lixue and Yang Mingxin, and was quite accomplished in these fields.
However, Zeng Guofan only entered the career in 1838, followed by the First Opium War in 1840, followed by the Taiping Rebellion in 1851, after quelling the rebellion, Zeng Guofan immediately threw himself into the foreign affairs movement, and died of illness in 1872, and he did not have free time to write a book and pass on his ideas.
It was also Zeng Guofan who failed to successfully "make a statement" and achieve "great and transformation", so he was called "half a saint" by posterity. However, all three of them are absolutely well-known figures in the history of our country, and their ideas, conduct and deeds are worthy of our lifelong study and admiration.