Zeng Guofan
Many modern people suffer from depression, have received widespread attention, and have a corresponding professional, scientific treatment plan, then the ancient Zeng Guofan is also a depressed patient, how did he resist?
Beginning in September of the fourth year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan's insomnia and old problems began to gradually worsen, and his body and mind were extremely tired, and in his diary at that time, he wrote: "Tired and unwilling to treat things." Sleep at three o'clock, wake up more at five. Severe lack of sleep had damaged Zeng Guofan's spirit, and at the same time, a huge melancholy was always wrapped around his heart and lingered.
Insomnia directly leads to fatigue, physical fatigue, decreased metabolic rate, coupled with the increasing age, unprecedented loneliness and decadence make this late Qing Dynasty minister feel particularly helpless, and it is reasonable that such a situation should not occur.
After the four years of Tongzhi had just pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Empire was able to present a "Zhongxing atmosphere" under the continuous efforts of Zeng Guofan and other ministers, and its tremendous deeds and lofty official positions, unprecedented prestige and influence could not bring him any relief, which was indeed worth pondering. Regarding Zeng Guofan's mental journey, the more desolate he became in his later years, and by carefully combing through the relevant texts, he could truly find that there were deep-seated causes for his illness. In the second half of the year, the following records appeared several times: "September 17: "Tired and unwilling to govern." Another game of Go, a game of spectators. The second day of the first month of October: "Tired, unwilling to govern." Talk with the shogunate princes. October 22: "After the second more tired, and like a cold-fearing person, the old scenery is invaded, and it is difficult to let it be." ”
If he thought that he was so insomnia and passive and sluggish, he went north during this period, and in October, he moved the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau up to Haihongkou, merged with Li Hongzhang's original artillery bureau and the iron factory purchased from the Americans, and added more than 100 machines purchased by Rong Hong to build the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau. In December, the Yangtze River Water Division's permanent charter and camp rules were approved. In 1866 (the fifth year of Tongzhi), Zeng Guofan was ordered to enter Zhoujiakou and supervise the suppression of the division as a minister of Chincha.
According to the characteristics of the twist army's uncertain movement and mobile operations, Zeng Guofan adopted the countermeasures of "key defense, clearing the field with strong walls, and drawing river circles", but in the end all failed. Why was the Taiping Army, which once commanded 100,000 Xiang armies against as many as a million, still able to achieve the final victory, so why was it so bad on the issue of the struggle against the Rogues? There seem to be many answers to such questions, but in the final analysis, he is mentally insufficient, and all his strength has been completely exhausted by the various secular grammatical unspoken rules of the Great Qing dynasty and the pressure of the Taiping Army. For example, heroes fight the beast with their bare hands and eventually kill it, while letting him continue to deal with a cat. Moreover, Zeng Guofan's spiritual willpower had gradually collapsed.
HuaiJun
He also knew that the era that belonged to him was over, so he had to put out Li Hongzhang to replace him to complete the task of suppressing the twist, and he himself was supported in the rear. The relationship between Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang is somewhat complicated, Li Hongzhang, as a staff disciple personally cultivated by Zeng Guofan, once broke with Zeng Guofan, fortunately, both of them can focus on the overall situation and reconcile as before. As for the historical status of the two of them, I think a comparative commentary in Liang Qichao's Biography of Li Hongzhang is quite insightful: "Li Hongzhang is to Zeng Guofan, Yu Guan Zhong's Uncle Bao, and Han Xin's Xiao He Ye." Restlessly, his lifelong learning and deeds and career were all achieved by Zeng Guofan Tisi. Therefore, Hongzhang Shi zeng Wenzheng one of the characters under the elbow also. It was not within Li's reach, and the world had a definite evaluation. ”
It seems that the general pattern of historical development is the relay, the end should be ended, the exit should be withdrawn, Zeng Guofan has long been familiar with the linearity of this history. As for Li Hongzhang's strategic layout of "pacifying the twisters", it was entirely Zeng Guofan's previous idea of "braking with statics"; in the same way, Zeng Guofan failed to succeed, but Li Hongzhang won the battle, and there was only one reason -- lack of mental strength. As early as before the expedition, he resigned from the appointment of this work: "The minister's energy is declining, he is not arduous, and the longer he does things, the smaller his heart is", which is indeed his heartfelt heart.
However, Zeng Guofan's heart was always lost and depressed, which seemed to have nothing to do with his self-honor and disgrace. The Qing Empire has long been in decline, and the so-called "Tongzhi Zhongxing" is nothing more than a return to the light that is not dazzling. "A man without comrades, self-defeating Wen Zhong and Jiang Zhonglie." Colleagues, on the other hand, rarely have a single heart. Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, Peng Yulin and other protégés were mostly far away from him, and a huge sense of loneliness had always haunted him, and there were already dozens of people who had been promoted to the position of inspector through his recommendation and reuse, not to mention the number of people employed in their lifetime. Although he was praised for knowing people and employing people in the world, even Zuo Zongtang, who had scolded him for half his life and was jealous of him all his life, had to admit that "knowing people's wisdom is not as good as Yuanfu", but the final outcome is not "bitter without comrades" and "rarely able to have one heart" in Zeng Guofan's view. It seems that his intellectuals who attract talents are just using each other. As early as the eighth year of Xianfeng, he said in his family letter: "Yu Xi did not vainly guarantee the act in the military camp, did not use money indiscriminately, but did not attach it to the people's hearts, and recently speculated about the wind meeting, and changed his previous ambitions." However, in his twilight years, he now looks at the people who attract with interests, after all, they are not confidants, not people in the same way. His favorite disciple in his later years was Zhao Liewen, and he was also the most willing to be indifferent in his staff. This year, Zhao Liewen was only thirty-six years old, and Zeng Guofan regarded him as the only person who could talk to him, believing that he was "different from others in his interests", a person who was prone to tears, and a kind talent who was "high in talent and especially thick in heart".
Zhao Liewen
This year, Zhao Liewen came to Zeng Guofan from Changshu and saw that his teacher Zeng Guofan was much thinner than before, and his spirit was as good as ever. His book "Diary of Being Able to Live in Silence" completely records all the conversations between the teachers and students during the year, as well as Zeng Guofan's physical illness and mental journey. When he was almost not busy, Zeng Guofan took the initiative to chat with him, which was extremely rare in Zeng Guofan's circle. On the eighth day of the first month of June, Zeng Guofan came to look for Zhao Liewen, saw that someone was there, and left, and came again after a while. He said to Zhao Liewen that yesterday the court issued an extremely harsh will, because the twisters sneaked to eastern Henan and did not intercept at all, so Zeng Guoquan was stripped of his top and handed over to the ministry. "The tone is harsh, and it is nothing to come by." After that, Zeng Guofan was afraid to go north, "taking care of his own energy and decadence, and he was not a person who had this game." "Pray for a quick death to heal your ears." In the end, Zhao Liewen comforted for a long time, watching the teacher sigh and leave, Zhao Liewen actually felt sorry for the teacher and lost sleep this night.
When the fate of the great Qing dynasty was about to sink one night after the two masters and apprentices exchanged deeply, Zeng Guofan felt desperate about it, and Zhao Liewen's view was: "Fearing that Lu Shen may not be able to meet Jin and Song Ye." "It is impossible for the Qing government to move south to a remote corner like the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. Then Zhao Liewen expressed some views in detail, and finally Zeng Guofan was so desperate that Zeng Guofan said in despair: "I look forward to death day and night, and I am worried about seeing the fall of zongyi."
In the diary letters, it is often "anxious and lifeless" that is also this year, he said in his letter to Zeng Guoquan: "When everything is tricky and anxious, I do not hesitate to escape into the closed box (coffin), sleep with high spirits, ignore everything, or feel happier than entering the world today." The more anxious it is, the more troublesome the business, and the long night is happy without information, and the higher the ranks, the heavier the responsibility, the more accusations. People are proud of their best, and now I think that I am in a state of distress, but the situation is in, and I can never stay out of the matter, and I can only be a monk for a day and hit the clock for a day. ”
Shortly thereafter, Zeng Guofan fell ill, "In the evening, he returned to the waiting division, Yun played the second game of chess this afternoon, and watched the business under the window for about two hours, regaining a sense of novelty and breathing." The next morning, Zhao Liewen went to visit him, but his condition still did not improve, and he did not sleep all night, and Zeng Guofan said that he had said too much. The next day, Zhao Liewen went to visit in the morning or it was not good, and he stayed up all night, and his lips were blistering, so he advised him not to take medicine.
Zeng Guofan's distress and depression and even illness are by no means because of the tediousness of government affairs, what is important is that in the twilight years, he suddenly found that his lifelong struggle, in the end, could not stop the tide of history, the green mountains could not cover, after all, the east flow, presumably the desolation of all heroes in their later years. He demanded himself with the standard of an absolute saint, following the extreme self-denial of the theoretician, "establishing a heart for the heavens and the earth, establishing a destiny for the people, continuing to learn for the saints, and opening up peace for all the worlds", the grand vision became out of reach, he did not want to see the empire he personally saved only because he had exhausted his life's flesh and blood before he changed his life, he purgeded the Taiping Army for eleven years, but failed to achieve his own clarification of the world for the benefit of all the people. He had to agree with Zhao Liewen's speculation about the Qing Dynasty, in fact, he did not see it: "The water and springs of the Beijing Division are dry, the royal river is cut off, there is no gentleman in the dynasty, and the personnel affairs are chaotic, I am afraid that it is not the way to last for a long time." "It's just that he really doesn't want to believe it." His illness was clearly an over-anxiety attack on his heart, and he was disillusioned with the highest ideals of a lifelong saint. His "when a hundred ends are rebellious, there is only the law of obedience", not for himself. His "knocked teeth and blood swallowed", and swallowed not because of cowardice.
Lifelong skin diseases and blindness in his later years were not the most serious diseases of Zeng Guofan, and his illness was the end of depression. "Yu has always been more depressed, conscious of the things of ordinary life, more shameful, recently blind in the right eye, weak in health, especially in the past, it is difficult to remedy, this life has no academic achievements, with shame and depression, just like the saints called long-term relatives.
It took him a few days to arrive at the qing court's transfer of him to zhili, and it was in this situation that, one year after taking over as the governor of zhili, under the impetus of Zeng Guofan, 12,074 old cases from tongzhi seven years ago were settled, 28,121 new cases since tongzhi were eight years old, only ninety-five old cases were not settled, and only 2,940 new cases remained. It should be known that at this time, in addition to serious skin diseases, Zeng Guofan has suffered from a variety of old age diseases, coupled with serious eye diseases, it is conceivable that he has undertaken difficulties for ordinary people to understand this major work.
Zeng Guofan calligraphy
His strong willpower supported the bottom line of being an official and a government, but after the "Tianjin Teaching Case", he suffered tremendous pressure and grievances, and was once again scolded as a "traitor" and other notoriety, and the plaque hanging in the Beijing Huguang Guild Hall that read, "Daoguang Pengshu Section Will Pass the Examination for the Thirty-eighth Jinshi, The Temple Examination for the Thirty-second Rank, and the Tongjinshi Origin", was smashed. He himself repeatedly said that the case was "too soft" to the outside world, "guilty in his heart", "ashamed of the outside world, guilty gods" After undergoing this strong blow, the Qing court asked him to return to the post of governor of Liangjiang, and died of illness in Nanjing a year and a half later.
In the ninth year of Tongzhi, on March 30, he wrote in his diary on that day: "Sleep at four o'clock at two more." Intraday eye disease is getting sick day by day, old and unsuccessful, and the anxiety is very special. In the end, those who are depressed and unhappy are always punished by the reason that their hearts are not dead, so as to feed them for the rest of the year. ”
In the first two years of his death, he often saw words such as regret and lack of achievement in his diary or family letters, which were not so-called self-effacing words, but summarized the shortcomings in his life but could not make any more major progress and deeply blamed himself. The high self-expectation of this saint becomes heavier and more desolate in the end. In the eyes of others, the "three immortals" of "Lide", "Meritorious Service", and "Meritorious Speech" have already been achieved, but in his opinion, his own deeds are just like "the mountains of defeat are full of leaves, and there is no destination at all." The old man was injured, and he was ashamed and ashamed. ”
Zeng Guofan died on the fourth day of February 1872, and we look at his diary a few days before his death. The twenty-first day of the first month: "In an instant, it is dark, and it is impossible to cure things." I slept for a long time. The twenty-sixth day of the first month: "Those who have been confused on the way, and whose heart is ignorant, want to speak to Ghoshha beside the palanquin, but they cannot speak for a long time." Zhishui Ximen Official Hall wanted to talk to Mei Xiaoyan Fangbo, but he couldn't say it for a long time. If you want to move the wind, you must. "Twenty-ninth day of the first month": "In recent years, I have wanted to write, but I also feel that I am in a trance in my heart and cannot be autonomous." "The second day of the first month of February" is like a trembling pen in hand, and the mouth wants to speak but cannot make a sound." His diary, which began in June 1858 and lasted until the third day of February 1872. In his later years, it was desolate, like an old tree, a miserable river pool, and the wood was like this, how can people be ashamed. Liang Qichao once commented on Zeng Guofan, saying: Zeng Wenzheng, in modern times, has not seen the adults who have seen one or two times in the history of Gai; but the mainland, or the whole world, has also seen the adults who have seen one or two. When Comrade Mao Zedong was young, he commented on Zeng Guofan: "Foolish to his neighbors, he obeyed Zeng Wenzheng alone. A "solo service" said that Zeng Guofan's unique personality charm and super historical contributions, Zeng was known to the public, and he could sleep peacefully.