The decline of the late Qing Dynasty was like a rapidly collapsing mountain, which could not be contained at all, and the great country that once stood in the east was blind and laughed at the ignorance of the barbarians.
Now they are invaded and suppressed by barbarians, and the Manchu nobles in the late Qing Dynasty are almost useless, and they are drunk all day long, which is completely useless for the country.
And why was it that the government of the late Qing Dynasty lasted for more than half a century before finally collapsing? In fact, this was entirely due to the efforts of the Han landlords.
During this period, Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan, Zhang Zhidong and other Han landlords can be said to have supported half of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Among them, Zeng Guofan was a rare general in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and as early as before Zeng Guofan was founded, there was a foreshadowing that he would become the top pillar of the empire.
The Tsang clan
Zeng Guofan, who was born in Hunan, is the leader of the rise of the family, of course, the prosperity of the Zeng family is not achieved overnight, but accumulated over time.
The Zeng family settled in Baiyangping, Heyetang, Xiangxiang, Changsha Province, Hunan Province, from the Jiajing period, and was an ordinary peasant family that had been farming for generations.
However, the Zeng family also belonged to the local kulaks, and the family was relatively wealthy, so the children of the family could have the opportunity to receive education.
And the generations of the Zeng clan are also trying their best to cultivate future generations, hoping that one day someone can fly yellow and prosper the family.
Zeng Guofan's great-grandfather Zeng Yansheng, although he was a farmer, but he attached great importance to education, and from an early age he ordered his son Zeng Yuping to read and write, but Zeng Yuping was slightly less talented, and it was difficult to achieve success after many years of study.
When Zeng Yuping grew up, he pinned his hopes on his children, that is, Zeng Linshu, the father of Zeng Guofan.
Zeng Linshu's reading talent is much better than that of his father, Zeng Yuping, but in general, it is still relatively general, and Zeng Linshu has participated in the child examination more than ten times before he can get on the list.
After that, in order to be admitted to the show, he studied hard for more than ten years, and did not take the middle show until he was forty-three years old.
And this also exhausted all the talents of Zeng Linshu, knowing that his ability was limited, Zeng Linshu pinned his hopes for the revitalization of the family on his descendants.
When Zeng Guofan was born, his great-grandfather Zeng Yansheng was still alive, and it was not until Zeng Guofan was five years old that Zeng Yansheng died.
However, Zeng Yansheng, who had worked hard all his life, did not see a son in his family who could honor his ancestors in the end.
However, when Zeng Yansheng was alive, he also saw that the family was in the same house for four generations, and the people were prosperous, although none of them had a meritorious name, but the family was thriving day by day, which was also a comfort for Zeng Yansheng.
After all, before his death, the family did not have a scene of decay, but had a growing trend of prosperity, and just when Zeng Yansheng died and was buried, an unexpected thing happened.
Feng Shui theory
Zeng Yansheng's death, for the Zeng family, is a big event, the status of the Zeng family in the local area is not low, the funeral is naturally a beautiful event, the four neighbors come to mourn.
After the end of the seven-day suspension of the coffin, it was natural to bury Zeng Yansheng, and the sky on the day of the burial was clear, and after the final mourning ceremony, just when the children of the Zeng family were preparing to carry Zeng Yansheng's coffin to the pre-selected tomb, suddenly heavy rain fell.
The Zeng family had no choice but to suspend the burial and wait for the rain to be less intense, but the heavy rain on that day was getting heavier and heavier, and it did not decrease at all, and even the cemetery selected in advance was washed away by the heavy rain.
The cemetery was washed away before it was buried, which was undoubtedly unlucky in the hearts of the ancients who believed in the study of feng shui, so the people of the Zeng family planned to change the new cemetery for Zeng Yansheng.
However, at this time, a respected old man in the township stood up and told the Zeng family that this place was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and it was an excellent feng shui treasure place, buried here, and would be a great official in the future.
The dedication to the name of the meritorious name made the Zeng family shine after listening to it, and they did not care whether the cemetery was washed away, and soon the place where it was covered up was dug up and Zeng Yansheng was buried in it.
Whether this story is true or not, in fact, can not be examined, but the Zeng clan did produce a big official, but also a big official who can influence the future of the dynasty.
That is Zeng Guofan, Zeng Wenzheng.
When Zeng Yansheng died, Zeng Guofan was only five years old, and the next year he entered a private school and began his own path of study, compared with his father and grandfather, Zeng Guofan's path of study was much smoother.
At the age of fifteen, he took the Boy Scout Examination in Changsha and ranked seventh, which was in stark contrast to Zeng Linshu, who could not pass the examination more than ten times.
At the age of twenty-two, Zeng Guofan passed the Xiucai examination, and the next year he passed the examination again, and then went to Beijing to prepare for the examination.
On the road of the examination, Zeng Guofan had a slight ups and downs, and participated in it three times before he successfully made the list, and finally became a jinshi at the age of twenty-seven and embarked on a career path.
And this news, for the Zeng clan, can be described as guangzong Yaozu, not only Zeng Guofan stepped into the career path, his brother Zeng Guoquan also entered the career path.
Suddenly, the status of the Zeng clan increased greatly, from a local peasant to a famous eunuch family in Hunan, especially Zeng Guofan, and also entered the political center of the Qing Dynasty.
Zeng Wenzhenggong
The courtesy name Wenzheng is the honor that many literati in ancient and modern times want to get after death, and Zeng Guofan did it.
In the Qing Dynasty, a total of eight people were given the title of Wen Zheng, Including Tang Bin, Liu Tongxun, Zhu Jue, Cao Zhenyong, Du Shoutian, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzao, and Sun Jianai.
Even Li Hongzhang, who was also a heavy minister of the late Qing Dynasty, was not given the title of Wen Zheng, which shows the status of Zeng Guofan in the late Qing Dynasty.
Zeng Guofan had outstanding merits in his life, yu Guo, was the country's important minister, he rectified the township courage in Hunan, established the world-famous Xiang Army, the Xiang Army's concept of governing the army, was respected by the military experts of that era.
Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai, Cai Yi, etc. were all highly respected, and even Mao Zedong borrowed the Xiang Army's method of governing the army to a certain extent when he established the Red Army.
The Xiang Army played a huge role in many battles such as pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and recovering Xinjiang, especially the recovery of Xinjiang, which was an important campaign for Chinese defending the territory of the homeland.
In addition to his outstanding political and military contributions, Zeng Guofan was also an outstanding Confucian scholar.
His attainments in science were equally profound, and in that era of rigid science, Zeng Guofan proposed the improvement and perfection of science, and revitalized science with a new vision.
On top of education, Zeng Guofan opened a new style of school, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Translation Hall were established under the auspices of Zeng Guofan, which became an important platform for advanced Chinese elements in the late Qing Dynasty to learn Western knowledge.
summary
Zeng Guofan is a model among the civil servants, the best among the ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, it can be said that among the many famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan belongs to the only file, even Li Hongzhang is not enough.
Of course, the responsibilities borne by the two are also different, so the world's evaluation of them is naturally different, but there is no doubt that Zeng Guofan has achieved the ultimate in whether he is a subject, an official, a son, or a citizen.