It is often said that "to be an official should learn from Zeng Guofan, and when doing business you should learn from Hu Xueyan", but few people have mentioned "saving the country when learning From Tan Sitong".
Indeed, Zeng Guofan not only made a lot of research and achievements in becoming an official, but even made considerable research and achievements in how to behave as a person, how to make friends, how to retire, how to deal with the world, how to govern the family, how to cultivate himself, and how to do learning, and he deserved the title of a "great scholar-type official."
Hu Xueyan, with his outstanding business talent, set up the "Fukang" Qianzhuang semicolon throughout the country, known as the "Living God of Wealth". The "Huqing Yutang" Chinese medicine store founded in Hangzhou has been passed down to this day and won the reputation of "Jiangnan Medicine King". At the same time, he is also known as a famous red-top merchant in modern China (official residence erpin, rewarded with yellow coat), politician, emblem merchant representative figure. Although the ending was tragic, he wrote a business legend.
Therefore, the two deserve the name of "being an official and learning from Zeng Guofan, and doing business as learning from Hu Xueyan".
▲ Portrait of Tan Sitong
Although Zeng Guofan and Hu Xueyan were once a bright star in history, whether they were officials to achieve their height or to their level of business, who would not see the various drawbacks of the country's "critical survival", and what they thought and did were things that were conducive to their personal safety and future, but who would disregard their personal future and safety, change the status quo, and save the country and the nation from the brink of survival?
Speaking of Zeng Guofan, at the age of 6, he entered a private school to study, at the age of 8 he could read four books and recite the Five Classics, at the age of 14 he could read the "Zhou Li" and "Shi Ji", at the age of 27 he entered the Hanlin Academy, and then he was transferred to the cabinet bachelor, the ceremonial attendant, the soldier, the worker, the criminal, and the official waiter, and his reputation was greatly enhanced by the overthrow of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
During this period, he was insensitive to "the doctor's habit of worrying about Gou An" and "hated the bone". He once said: "The country is poor and not enough, but the people's hearts are scattered, it is a great trouble", "Chang is a wind that is neither white nor black, nor painful nor itchy."
He also believes: "The evil of the rule of officials, because of the group curtain, the officials are only to remove the disadvantages of the curtain, and sincerity is the theory of exploring the source."
Therefore, he once proposed: "The most important thing in administration is to win people." This means that those who have both moral integrity and ability should be selected as officials, and those officials who are corrupt and pervert the law and who are fishermen must be severely punished.
At the same time, he also hated the Westerners' invasion of China, believing that "lying on the side of the bed, it is better to allow others to snore, so he opposes borrowing teachers to help suppress it, and is deeply ashamed of using foreign countries." ”
It can be said that for the corruption and decline of the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan is definitely already in the fire.
However, he did not personally try to change the status quo, but only talked about it, so that others could hear how reasonable he was. After all, the reformers in history have put themselves on the cusp of the storm, and he is well versed in the way of being an official, how can he put his career and safety at risk?
▲ Portrait of the "Six Gentlemen of Pengshu"
However, Tan Sitong used the tragic grandeur of "martyrdom with his body" to end the efforts of the Xiangxue spirit of "applying to the world" on the traditional road, and opened up a new road of salvation for Hu Xiangzhishi.
Tan Si spent his life working on the restoration and reform of the law, and in his early years he held a new policy in Hunan and used the "School of Current Affairs" to cultivate a large number of restorationists.
In the early summer of 1989, Tan Sitong was ordered to enter Beijing to participate in the change of the law, and on the eve of his departure to Beijing, he and his wife Li Yanlan spoke on the eve of the night, and played the "Lei Remnant Qin" and "Crashing Tingqin" made by Tan Sitong.
After meeting the Guangxu Emperor, Tan Sitong openly put forward the idea of "abolishing the imperial examination, building schools, opening mines, building railways, running factories, and changing the official system" and other reforms.
Subsequently, he participated in the leadership of the "Penghu Reform Law", and assisted the Guangxu Emperor in implementing the reform law, rectifying the bureaucratic system and eliminating the maladministration.
At that time, he seemed to have expected that this reform would inevitably touch the nerves and interests of too many people, and it was likely that it would be difficult to have a good ending.
Therefore, he wrote a suicide note to his wife (Li Yan) in Liuyang, Hunan:
Leap wife as face:
Fifteen years of bonding, I have agreed to die, and now I have betrayed the alliance!
Writing this letter by hand, I am still a man in the world, and when you read this letter, I have become a ghost, dead and alive, and I will say nothing!
But although this body is gone, this feeling is unswerving, and although the small self is destroyed, the large self is eternal.
In all lifetimes, dwelling in the lotus flowers, so that the birds of the same destiny are greeted by the lings of The Vijaya, flying with wings, and can also laugh at each other.
May the king regard glory as a dream, regard death and humiliation as a common thing, have no joy or sorrow, and listen to its nature.
I was reunited with My Son (born with a son, named Lan Sheng, who died early) and waited for jun in the Western Elysium, and he was reunited in the year. The soul is not far from me, and the dream of the king's soul is dependent, and I hope that the king will be cherished.
On August 9th, Si Tong!
As a result, the Wushu Rebellion began on June 11, 1898, and on September 21, 1898, in just one hundred and three days, it was declared a failure under the "Wushu Coup" launched by Empress Dowager Cixi.
Three days later, the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned, and Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and others who participated in the reform of the law fled to France and Japan for refuge, while Tan Si and the other "Six Gentlemen of Wushu" (Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, and Kang Guangren) who used the reform of the law were imprisoned.
In prison, Tan Sitong left behind the dying song of "I smile from the horizontal knife to the sky, to leave the liver and gallbladder for two kunluns".
On September 28, 1898, on the way to the Caikou Execution Ground outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing, the 33-year-old Tan Sitong kept shouting, "There is a heart to kill thieves, unable to return to heaven, die where you want, hurry up!" ”
▲ Tan Sitong's former residence
Although he used his life and blood to compose a magnificent lament of "willing to brush the government with neck blood", thus awakening the sleeping enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of chinese people, he left his wife Li Yan with a bumpy and lonely second half of his life of "losing his mother at the age of three, losing his son at a young age, and losing his husband in middle age".
After Tan Sitong's sacrifice, Li Yan called himself "Zhensheng", took the meaning of Tan Sitong's prison poem "Endure death and wait for Dugan", and wrote a poem: "The past cannot be traced, and the acacia is a layer of ashes." In the next life, he will become a lotus picker and meet the Jun in Hengtang Water" to express his pain of lovesickness.
Later, Xinhua Comment: Although the Penghu Reform Law failed, Tan Sitong was also killed, and his spirit of willingness to smear the government with neck blood and regard death as a homecoming not only pointed directly to the corruption and darkness of the Qing Dynasty government, but also set up an immortal monument for the people, so that future generations will always admire it.
Afterwards, Liang Qichao called Tan Sitong: "China is the first soldier to shed blood for the country." ”
Therefore, if you think that the contribution of the Chinese nation is concerned, Zeng Guofan is not as good as Tan Sitong! That is to say, Tan Sitong's spirit is more worthy of study and respect by future generations, rather than the so-called successful people who only know how to talk about learning and cherish their lives.
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