China has a history of thousands of years, and generation after generation of outstanding figures have presented excellent chapters to future generations in their time, and there are too many to count. But there are very few people who can really be called saints, generally speaking, saints refer to people with the highest moral character and the highest wisdom, and the ancients had cloud talent and virtue to be called saints. There are four half-saints in history that are more recognized, which is strange here, why are there half-saints? Who is this half?
First of all, let's take a look at the first five saints, the first is Dayu, the founding monarch of the Xia Dynasty. Dayu is also said to be the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, the grandson of Emperor Huan, who is not famous for his ideas, but for his remarkable achievements in controlling water. During the Yao period, the flooding of the Central Plains caused flooding and was not well known. Yao asked the carp to cure the water, and as a result, the carp did not calm down for nine years, and even grew larger. Then Yao met Yu and asked Yu to serve as Sikong, and Dayu had been doing his best, and during the period of water treatment, he passed through the door of the house three times without entering. So he can be regarded as a saint, and this name is also recognized to him.
The second Duke of Zhou, he was the fourth son of King Wen of Zhou and the younger brother of King Wu of Zhou. Li Le was made by him, and he was also a pioneer of Confucianism. The "Shang Shu Da Biography" records his exploits as follows: one year to save the chaos, two years to overcome Yin, three years to practice death, four years to build Hou Wei, five years to camp into Zhou, six years to make liturgical music, and seven years to become a king. In the early days of the Zhou Dynasty, many systems were made by the Zhou Gong, such as the patriarchal system, the sub-feudal system, the law of primogeniture, the Ida system, and so on. He laid the foundation for the eight hundred years of rule of the Zhou Dynasty, and the saint deserved it.
The third is the most familiar Confucius, who was already holy in his lifetime, and who is even more victorious in the future. He was the founder of the Confucian school, which influenced china's history for more than two thousand years. It was also Kong Shengren who pioneered the style of private lectures, advocating the Six Classics of Wisdom and Faith, which he sorted out, and his words and deeds were considered Confucian classics. Sometimes even the name of the saint refers specifically to Confucius, which is enough to see the high level of his reputation.
The fourth is Lao Tzu, also known as Li Er, who is regarded as a world cultural celebrity and is one of the hundred celebrities. Lao Zu is the founder and main representative of the Taoist school and is revered as the founder of Taoism. Taoism is a rare indigenous religion in China, and Li Er also has a more widely known name, that is, Taishang Laojun. He had a profound influence on the development of Chinese philosophy, and the Tao Te Ching is one of the most widely published works in the world. Even in the eyes of Westerners, he is one of the three great saints of the East.
The remaining half-saint was Zeng Guofan, one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, and a descendant of Zengzi. This six-year-old began to read, at the age of eight he could read the Four Books and Five Classics, and at the age of 14 he could read the historical records and zhou li. In the official arena, he was not proud, advocated thrift and honesty, self-discipline, and achieved great success in the official arena. Zeng Guofan had a certain influence on the Qing Dynasty, and he took the lead in pioneering many modernization constructions in the Western Affairs Movement, and he was also praised as the first perfect person in the ancient world.
In modern history, his demeanor and personal cultivation are rarely compared, but this perfect person also has shortcomings. He has a name that shaved his head, what does that mean? The sages were necessarily of high moral character, but he was loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and in order to suppress the rebellion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he killed innocents indiscriminately, and his methods were too cruel to cause his reputation to be mixed. Therefore, Zeng Guofan cannot be regarded as a saint, but only a semi-saint, and today, there are still many controversies about him.