Zeng Guofan was basically a mediocre before he was thirty years old: he later achieved a perfect counterattack

Before the age of 30, he was basically a mediocre person

Zeng Guofan has done many great things in his life, and his means are very clever and shrewd. But in fact, Zeng Guofan's IQ is not particularly high, from the perspective of family genetics, Zeng Guofan's father Zeng Linshu was very stupid when he was reading, from the teenage years old to take the Xiucai, until the age of 43, before and after the full test 17 times, and finally the hair has been gray, only to win a Xiucai. Zeng Guofan's own path of examination was at first a bit similar to his father's. The first 6 shows were all failed, and it was not until the 7th time that I barely won a show. Why is it "reluctant"? Because his rank is second to last.

Regarding Zeng Guofan's talent, there was a lot of discussion at that time. His friend Zuo Zongtang often commented on Zeng Guofan in correspondence with some relatives and friends, saying that Zeng Guofan "lacked talent", "talent is too short", "talent is too lacking", and "every military machine is bitter and blunt". His student Li Hongzhang called him "slow" to his face and said that he was too slow to react.

Before the age of 30, Zeng Guofan had many shortcomings and problems that ordinary people usually have in terms of personality. After he became an official in Beijing, he spent a lot of time socializing every day, going everywhere to drink, chat, listen to plays, play chess, spend a lot of time reading, and often couldn't sit still. Once, the Hanlin Academy took a 40-day vacation, and at the end of the holiday, Zeng Guofan made a self-summary in his diary, saying what he had done in these 40 days. Except for writing a few family letters, nothing was done, and I was confused.

He was arrogant, ill-cultivated, grumpy, and had several serious conflicts with others. One of them was with Zheng Xiaoshan, a Beijing official from the same township, and the two of them fought because they disagreed during the meal. All the dirty words were scolded, and even "greeting" the relatives of both sides. Zeng Guofan felt very regretful afterwards, saying that his move was too insulting to Sven.

Therefore, Zeng Guofan before the age of 30 was a very mediocre person in many ways, and there was a very big gap between him and the saints with perfect personalities that we later remembered.

Self-reflection and learning to be a saint

Why was Zeng Guofan able to be reborn and cultivate himself diligently? This is also inseparable from his going to Beijing as an official. Zeng Guofan met many Confucians and scholars in Beijing, and he was very touched. At the same time, after becoming an official, Zeng Guofan did not have the pressure to write eight strands of literature, and he began to have time to calmly study some knowledge. At that time, it was indispensable for a reader to study the science of science, and one of the basic theories of science was that everyone could become a saint through self-tempering, and everyone had the aspiration of a saint. Therefore, at the age of 30, Zeng Guofan felt that he could not be as mixed up as before, and he had to be reborn, re-become a man, and learn to be a saint.

How did Zeng Guofan learn to be a saint? It is very simple to say, he learned to be a saint from the beginning of writing a diary, using a neat fly head, taking his own daily actions, every morning when he opened his eyes and went to sleep at night, especially to pick out everything that did not meet the standards of a saint, and reflect on himself. In his diary, he also set himself the lower limit to conquer every day, reading ten pages of history every day, writing down one tea and occasional conversation every day, reading a sutra every day, and practicing composition every three to five minutes. With this tool of diary, Zeng Guofan's efficiency in work and study was greatly improved.

After making up his mind to renew himself, Zeng Guofan immediately remembered the fight with Zheng Xiaoshan, although this one had problems with both people, but if you want to change it, you must ask for yourself, you must find the reason in yourself, and if you want to change it, you must speed up. Therefore, Zeng Guofan immediately visited Zheng Xiaoshan's house and apologized. Zheng Xiaoshan was also very moved, and left Zeng Guofan to eat. So the two men reconciled as before.

Living conditions are average

Generally speaking, everyone's controversy over Zeng Guofan focuses on whether Zeng Guofan is a sincere person or a hypocritical person. Many people say that Zeng Guofan is a very sincere gentleman and saint, but there are also quite a few people who think that Zeng Guofan is a hypocritical person, an old adulterer, and his every move is to get rich in order to promote officials. A person's income and expenditure is a very secret aspect of a person's life, and through understanding this aspect, we can often define the authenticity of this person.

There is a ledger of Zeng Guofan Daoguang around twenty-one years ago in the "Xiangxiang Zengshi Literature", because Zeng Guofan was a very careful person, and during his time as a Beijing official, the economy was very tight, and Zeng Guofan had to keep accounts every day in his life. Through a combing of this data, we can see the basic context of Zeng Guofan's lifelong economic revenue and expenditure.

First of all, let's talk about Zeng Guofan's economic situation when he was a Beijing official. In the twentieth year of Daoguang, Zeng Guofan was awarded the official position of reviewing from the Hanlin Academy of Qipin, which is equivalent to a researcher at or above the deputy department level in the Policy Research Office of the State Council today, who often has to meet with the chiefs of various ministries, and sometimes to the emperor, often drafting some articles for the state. But his financial situation can be summed up in one word — poverty. For example, in the twenty-second year of Daoguang, a servant of Zeng Guofan named Chen Sheng had a quarrel with his master. It was also a common thing for the master to quarrel with the servants, but after Chen Sheng had quarreled, he rolled up the covers and left, and went to another official's house to climb the tall branches, why? Because the living standard of the Zeng Guofan family was too low, he often delayed his salary and ate badly. Therefore, this incident made Zeng Guofan very stimulated, and then he wrote an Auror slave poem, saying, "There is no learning and no money in the chest, and the business is quite arrogant, who knows that the Aonu is over me." There is no money in hand, the servants look down on themselves, and a servant is more arrogant than himself. Why is it so poor? This is because of the low salary system of the Qing Dynasty.

Using one or two pieces of silver in the Qing Dynasty to buy how much rice to convert, about one or two silver is equivalent to today's 200 yuan, and Zeng Guofan's annual salary is about 24,000 yuan now. This kind of money is very difficult for a Beijing drifter today, not to mention Zeng Guofan dragging his family with his mouth. What was the expenditure of a Beijing official at that time? In the twenty-first year of Daoguang, Zeng Guofan spent 458 two 1 money and 9 cents of silver, and the fiscal deficit was 333 two 5 money and 4 cents.

In the Xianfeng Decade (1860), Zeng Guofan became the governor of Liangjiang. What was Zeng Guofan's income at this time? 155 two, similar to his period as a Beijing official. But this is only a nominal salary. The most important income of the governors and inspectors of the Qing Dynasty was fees, which in layman's terms were gray income. The average annual income of the governor-level officials is 180,000 taels, which is equivalent to 36 million yuan. If Zeng Guofan's income is really so much, he can be one of the highest-income earners in the qing empire. With such an earth-shaking increase in income, how much has Zeng Guofan's living standard improved?

Zeng Guofan's living standards did change drastically from when he was a Beijing official, but it was not improved, but decreased. First of all, in terms of dressing, Zeng Guofan was not only dressed simply during the governor period, but also to the extent of not trimming. This impression is confirmed by foreigners. Gordon, the leader of the Yankees, went to Anqing in the second year of Tongzhi to meet with Zeng Guofan once, and Gordon's attaché wrote a memoir about the meeting. These foreigners were surprised to find that the governor of Tangtang Liangjiang had old, wrinkled clothes, and speckled oil stains, which were accidentally dropped when eating. Why did Zeng Guofan not pay attention to his clothes when he was the governor? The reason is very simple, because in the territory of Liangjiang, Zeng Guofan is the biggest official, he has no superiors to visit, all the people who come to see him are subordinates, he can be casual.

Atypical purges

Zeng Guofan's information contains an interesting homework table, which he set for the female relatives of the Governor's Palace. Because Zeng Guofan was not allowed to hire too many servants in the Governor's Palace, and there were not enough manpower, Zeng Guofan asked his female dependents to rely on themselves and do housework by themselves. In the seventh year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan set a weekday schedule for his daughter and daughter-in-law. Every day after breakfast, I will make small dishes, snacks, and wine syrup, which is called food. Spinning flowers or weaving hemp in the morning, called clothing. After lunch, I do embroidery and other fine work. At night, I also have to make shoes, which is rough work. Therefore, the female relatives of the Governor's Palace could hardly rest from opening their eyes in the morning to resting at night. Such a family of the Governor's Palace, I believe that in the Qing Dynasty, there will certainly be no second family. At that time, every night, in the Governor's Palace in Nanjing, Zeng Guofan was reading official affairs with candles on the side, and his female relatives were lighting lamps and weaving cloth on the side, which should be said to be a very moving picture in Chinese history. This is zeng guofan's incorruptibility performance.

At the same time, he also has a "turbid" side to him. Zeng Guofan also ate and drank heavily, and in the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871), Zeng Guofan once went to Suzhou to check on his work, and most of his daily schedule was to invite guests to dinner. Before leaving, he also set up two tables for officials in Suzhou. This kind of style is the same as that of any official in the late Qing Dynasty. At the same time, in his later years, Zeng Guofan also sent ice and charcoal to the Beijing officials in Beijing, with a total of several thousand taels of silver.

Zeng Guofan's largest official dealings occurred in the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), because this year he was transferred from the Viceroy of Liangjiang to the Viceroy of Zhili, and he went to Beijing to meet His Majesty Empress Dowager Cixi and the Emperor. When leaving Beijing, according to the customs of the officialdom at that time, it was necessary to send a pen to the officials in Beijing, that is, the parting ceremony. After spending 14,000 taels of silver, he felt that it was not very rich, and compared with others, the amount of money was not very much.

Summarizing the economic income and expenditure of Zeng Guofan's life, I think Zeng Guofan was an atypical Qing official. On the one hand, he was indeed sober and did not include a penny in his private pocket. But on the other hand, his "Qing" is different from the qing official practice in traditional Chinese history, he is not like Hai Rui, who is a clean official, who is clear and clear, and strictly abides by the state's regulations, and the state stipulates that he cannot take a penny, and does not take a penny; the things that the state stipulates cannot do are not done at all. I think such a clean official is a facade clean official, and he can't do anything practical. If an official is clear to this extent, he will become a public enemy in the official arena, and everyone will not recognize you. Because your practice obviously implies that others are not honest, you cannot have any friends in the official arena, and you cannot have any strength to support yourself.

Zeng Guofan has a saying, he said, "You are especially reluctant to get the name of a clean official", that is, he does not want others to think that he is a clean official, and his practice of sharing the dust with the light and following the clear rules and unspoken rules of the official field has to a certain extent eased the conflict between himself and the official field, and is conducive to him uniting all the forces that can be united, mobilizing resources from all aspects, and doing some big things for society. Therefore, I think Zeng Guofan is an atypical Qing official who is clear inside and turbid on the outside, and round inside and round on the outside.

Understand feng shui, but do not monopolize a good cemetery

Zeng Guofan is more able to meet each other, every time he meets a living person, he has a habit of not talking to you first, let you sit in your seat, look at you from top to bottom, look at you for a few minutes, and then open your mouth. This habit is quite frightening, but Zeng Guofan himself thinks that this is a way for him to identify talents.

In addition, Zeng Guofan can also calculate gua, when he led the soldiers to fight, every time he encountered a military chess decision, he had to open the "I Ching" to calculate his own gua, which was recorded in his diary as many as 15. Zeng Guofan also believed in dreams, feng shui, etc.

In fact, in traditional Chinese culture, especially in the science of science, ghosts and gods and feng shui are an important part. Zeng Guofan was a theorist, so he was superstitious about ghosts and gods, and studying feng shui was not an unseemly thing at that time, it was a very bright and upright thing.

Since he understood feng shui, Zeng Guofan certainly could not be without any consideration for the feng shui of his future burial place. In his later years, Zeng Guofan had a friend named Feng Shutang, who was very good at checking feng shui, and in his later years he volunteered to tell Zeng Guofan that he would go to Hunan to find a grave for Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan happily agreed, and after Feng Shutang returned to Hunan, he picked a whole half a year to find a good 10,000-year auspicious place for Zeng Guofan, which was in Dongtai Mountain in Xiangxiang. Feng Shutang wrote to Zeng Guofan to report that the feng shui of Dongtai Mountain was really too good, and if Zeng Guofan was buried in this place in the future, it would be guaranteed that future generations would be able to raise people and enter the army. Unexpectedly, Zeng Guofan wrote back and said, I can't ask for this piece of land. Because this piece of land is so good, it is related to the cultural movement of a county, if I am buried here, the cultural movement of Xiangxiang County will be occupied by my former family, which will hinder the prosperity of other people's cultural movements. I don't do that kind of thing. So you can pick me another piece of land, not too good, as long as you can bless my children and grandchildren with peace. Therefore, after Zeng Guofan died, he was buried in another place. Even in such things as feng shui and superstition, it can reflect the difference in Zeng Guofan's personality.