Historical figure Zeng Guofan I

First, the seat is high and the car is low

Zeng Guofan was promoted year after year during the Daoguang years, and his promotion was extremely fast, and he was promoted to ten levels in ten years, which was a rare grace: after being promoted to a zhengsanpin member, according to the regulations, the car should be changed from blue to green, and the car guard should also increase two people, and the car needs to be equipped with a guide officer and a guard. However, to the surprise of the hundred officials, from the day Zeng Guofan was promoted to the rank of Sanpin official, in addition to having to add two guards around him, not only was there no guide officer in front of the car, but even the people who supported the car were also omitted, and the car was not changed to green, and still took the blue car.

Soon, Zeng Guofan was promoted to the rank of Erpin Commander, and the subordinates recommended four sedans for him, and wanted to replace Zeng Guofan's four-man sedan with eight sedans. According to the official system of the Qing Dynasty, officials below four pins were allowed to take a blue tweed car carried by four people, and officials with more than three pins were allowed to take a green tweed car carried by eight people, commonly known as an eight-pronged car. However, this is not a mandatory stipulation, if an official reaches the grade and the income is not rich, he can do what he can; if he does not reach the grade, he will be punished, but he will also be dismissed and enlisted.

In fact, Zeng Guofan had already made up his mind, and he knew that the official principle of overflowing when the water was full and the crowd was full was taboo, and that he did not sit or sit on the big car that could be put on or not. Although Zeng Guofan was bullied by lower-level officials for riding a blue tweed car, the senior officials of the three pins or more in the capital knew to explain to the officials who guarded the car: "Long eyes, the cabinet scholar Zeng Guofan is sitting on the blue tweed car." ”

Zeng Guofan has been traversing the official field for decades, and it is precisely by virtue of this low-key and introverted power that he has relied on.

Second, "no money, not afraid of death"

The suffering of the Officials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties is well known. Zeng Guofan' annual salary as a Qipinjing official was only 45 taels, plus the "Enqi" and "Lumi" as allowances were only 135 taels. Later Zhang Zhidong once calculated the account for the Beijing officials: "Counting the degree of use of the Beijing officials, that is, very hard, one gold per day, more than three hundred gold, can barely be self-sufficient." "There are only two ways to make up for such a large deficit of revenue and expenditure: one is to receive gifts from foreign officials, and the other is to borrow. Foreign officials have a good income, in order to build a network of relations, every time they enter Beijing, they must give gifts to familiar Beijing officials, named "Ice Respect", "Charcoal Respect", "Don't Respect" (meaning summer and winter to buy ice and buy charcoal and other expenses). This gift ranges from as little as a dozen taels to as many as a hundred taels. However, Zeng Guofan rarely used the power in his hands to do things for others, so the number of such gifts was very small, so borrowing became a major part of his financial resources. Because of his good character, it was easier for Zeng Guofan to borrow money. By the end of the twenty-second year of Daoguang (1842), Zeng Guofan had borrowed a total of 400 taels of silver. During this period, he repeatedly appeared in his family letters the words "borrow", "owe" and "embarrassment", and the difficult shape jumped on the paper.

In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), Zeng Guofan Moxuan (dié, referring to obedience to filial piety) congrong, founded the Xiang Army, and thus began an 11-year military career of suppressing the Taiping Army. The army of the late Qing Dynasty was the most corrupt. Shortfalls, withholding of salaries, sale of shortages, and gambling fees in military barracks were among the most common forms of private property for officers. Even honest and honest people can get rich by "cutting off the wilderness" and "detaining construction." The salary of the military according to the state is the full amount of the full month of the full-time personnel. However, throughout the year, the army often has soldiers who die, are discharged or eliminated, and are supplemented by new recruits. It is impossible for old and new soldiers to be connected on the same day, and there will be a gap in between. The silver saved at the time of the vacancy is called "interception". The state's salary is calculated according to 30 days per month, and the lunar month is only 29 days, and the military salary of the saved day is deducted, which is called "deduction and construction". These two sums of silver were supposed to be handed over to the state treasury, but in reality no one paid them. Over time, the number is enormous. For example, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army for decades, intercepting the open space and accumulating huge amounts of construction. He stored a portion of the silver in the directly subordinate treasury as his "small treasury", and there were still 8 million taels of silver after his death.

But Zeng Guofan's eunuch pockets were not enriched by this. When he first came out of the mountain, Zeng Guofan said: "Don't want money, don't be afraid of death." After commanding the troops, although there was a lot of money at his disposal, he donated part of his income to the disaster victims in the war zone for the sake of "the wind to show his subordinates" and "look to the Holy Lord", and the money sent home was less than before.

Zeng Guofan made up his mind not to send more money to his home, not only because he wanted to maintain a clean and honest festival, but also because he believed that people who had been tempered by life since childhood were more likely to become great instruments. "If you are tainted with the habit of wealth, it is difficult to hope for success." He said in his family letter: "I do not want to send more silver to my home, I am always afraid that the elders will lose their luxury, the younger generations will lose their pride, and those who do not have much money and their children will not be proud." ”

Although the official is the best, Zeng Guofan still maintained a frugal habit in his later years. Xue Fucheng's "Dai Li Bo Xiang Proposed Chen Duchen Zhongxun Facts" has this passage:

"His (Zeng Guofan) is himself frugal, just like Han Su. Officials are honest and honest, and they are used to fill the ranks of officials, and they have not tried to buy a house (chán, civilian residence), Masuda District. Thin food, self-indulgent, each food can not pass four (guǐ, ancient eating utensils). Men and women married, not more than two hundred gold, as a family training. There is the legacy of Tang YangXuan (wǎn) and Song Li Xun (hàng) (Yang and Li were respectively famous ministers of the Tang and Song dynasties). However, the neighboring army is poor, the victims are hungry, and the things that should be done with the husband and the locality will not hesitate to use the surplus of the lulu to help the public use and not to give. ”

This narrative should be said not exaggerated. Zeng Guofan loves to wear the native cloth clothes that his family woven for him, and does not love silk veils. After Zeng Guofan was promoted to governor, his shoes and socks were still made by his wife, daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law. At that time, every night in the Governor's Mansion of Liangjiang in Nanjing City, Zeng Guofan read official affairs at night, and the whole family and female relatives spun yarn under the sesame oil lamp. Usually he has only one dish per meal, "never set up much".

In the eleventh year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan died at the Governor's Office of Liangjiang at the age of 61. He left a will during his lifetime, and no funeral gifts were received. However, Zeng Guoquan advised Zeng Jize not to abide by this will, because the funeral of a member of the Yipin Commander was "really not a huge million", and those who were close to him "seemed to be able to accept it at their discretion". But Zeng Jize rejected the proposal. Zeng Guofan thought that the pension money he left for himself before his death was "extremely abundant", but after the funeral, there was very little left.

Third, "four defeats" of the Tibetan front

Zeng Guofan believed that there were four major taboos for officials, namely the "four defeats": those who were lazy and incompetent were defeated, those who were arrogant and arrogant were defeated, those who were greedy and unscrupulous were defeated, and those who repeatedly cheated were defeated. Zeng Guofan wrote this "four defeats" on his desk and reminded himself every day.

In another place, Zeng Guofan also said that since ancient times, there have been about two ends to the defeat of fierce virtue: one is arrogance, and the other is excessive speech. Summing up the experience of history, he said: "I look at the famous officials of the past generations, most of whom have lost their lives because of these two reasons. "Whether it is the fourth defeat of the official or the second defeat, in fact, there is a core, that is, the reason why the official is defeated is often because he does not know the scruples.

Zeng Guofan once said that he had "three fears": fear of the Mandate of Heaven, fear of others, and fear of the King's Father. Zeng Guofan's life has always been spent in a state of mind such as walking on thin ice and approaching the abyss. In May of the twenty-fifth year of Daoguang, Zeng Guofan was promoted to an official, and in his letter to his brother, he said that not only did he not dare to be happy, but he felt trembling. He said:

"This promotion was really unexpected. Day and night, I was sincerely afraid and self-reflective, and I was really immoral enough to bear. Thousands of miles away, you must correct my faults, always send letters to point out my shortcomings, and make sure that the yin virtue accumulated over the years will not degenerate here. Younger brothers should also always be in awe, and should not think that someone in the family is an official, so they dare to bully others; do not think that they have some knowledge, so they dare to be proud of themselves. Always having a reverential heart is the way to cherish blessings. ”