3 minutes a day, get to know the real Zeng Guofan!
A person's success has a lot to do with the way he makes friends. In the decadent and decadent and bureaucratic officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan was able to become the best official, to be a marquis, and to destroy the powerful Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the absence of the support of the imperial court and the obstruction of local officials. It is the help of friends.
In the process of studying Zeng Guofan, we will find that he has a very obvious feature, that is, he is good at making friends, and the friends he makes are very high-quality, and most of them are characters with both talent and morality.
How can I make quality friends? In his family letter, Zeng Guofan tirelessly taught his younger brothers how to succeed: first choose the environment, then choose the person.
Let's explain them one by one:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="5" What does > environment and make friends? </h1>
For the environment and the relationship between making friends, Zeng Guofan has a very famous golden sentence:
The lack of friends in the countryside is really the first hate, not only is it useless, but it is also very harmful, the customs are infected, and the so-called abalone place is also with it.
Let's first translate the meaning of this passage: there is no friend in the countryside, it is really the first hate in life, not only is it not good for personal growth, but also harmful, some bad customs in the countryside will infect people, as everyone often says, enter the place where abalone is sold for a long time, it will be assimilated and can not smell its smell.
This sentence is the question that Zeng Guofan discussed when he wrote to his brothers in the first month of the twenty-third year of Daoguang (1843 AD). At this time, Zeng Guofan received his first promotion since he entered the dynasty as an official, and his social style has changed greatly.
Zeng Guofan's first promotion was that the circle of contacts played an important role. At any time, the circle of contacts is an environment for a person to survive, especially in the official arena and the market, if your circle of contacts is full of people who are not as good as you, then it is difficult for you to make a breakthrough and succeed.
Zeng Guofan's circle of contacts at this time was completely different from his rural areas. During this period, Zeng Guofan's circle of contacts was mainly two: one was the hunan hometown circle; the other was the official circle of Mu Zhang'a, the first assistant minister of the military aircraft.
Both circles brought benefits to Zeng Guofan. In the circle of fellow villagers, Zeng Guofan worshiped Tang Jian, the master of science with the highest status and greatest influence in Beijing from Hunan, and learned Cheng Zhu Lixue from him, which made his level of knowledge improve by leaps and bounds, and he also became a master of science.
What should be particularly suggested here is why Zeng Guofan wanted to study science? Because the Qing Dynasty used science as the guiding ideology for governing the country, especially the Daoguang Emperor, his academic attainments were very profound, and all the officials in the dprk who had a solid knowledge of science were reused. Therefore, Zeng Guofan studied science assiduously, and made himself a knowledgeable, self-disciplined, and capable official.
In the official arena, it is not possible to be reused with skill, especially in the corrupt late Qing Dynasty, it is better to have skill than to have silver. Zeng Guofan, who has no silver, naturally has a way, that is, to mix circles.
Because of the teacher-student relationship with Mu Zhang'a (When Zeng Guofan took the test, Mu Zhang'a was the chief examiner), Zeng Guofan often went to visit his mentor, and the two quickly found a common hobby of liking ancient calligraphy and painting, and suddenly pulled the distance between them. Zeng Guofan relied on his excellent identification skills for ancient calligraphy and painting to enter Mu Zhang'a's circle.
It can be imagined that Mu Zhang'a, as the first assistant minister of the military aircraft, the official Zhi Yipin, is a figure with power over the world, and in his circle of contacts, he is naturally some figures who are not rich or noble, and Zeng Guofan can enter such a circle, how can his status be greatly improved? It was under the promotion of Mu Zhang'a that Zeng Guofan created a feat of four consecutive promotions in the history of the Qing Dynasty. Relying on Mu Zhang'a's relationship, he wanted the wind and rain in the DPRK, and his promotion was like riding a rocket.
If Zeng Guofan did not enter these two circles, it was not an easy task for him to gain the reuse of the imperial court for him who had no background.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="37" What kind of friends are worth dating >? </h1>
With circles, there are more people to contact, so what kind of people are worth interacting with? In any circle, there are loyal and adulterous people, and whether they can be identified or not depends entirely on the ability of individuals to identify.
Zeng Guofan believes that:
The success or failure of a lifetime is related to the merits of friends, and it must not be careless.
This means that the success or failure of a person's life is related to whether a friend is virtuous or not, so when making friends, we must be cautious.
Zeng Guofan later became the minister of regimental training in Hunan, and the reason why he was able to build an army in a short period of time was because of the help of friends, such as Luo Zenan, Guo Songtao, Peng Yulin, Zuo Zongtang, etc., all of whom were friends he interacted with when he was a teenager. And these people, when Zeng Guofan founded the Xiang Army, gave him selfless help.
Zeng Guofan's purpose of making friends is different from many people, and he told his brothers in his family letter:
It is also a great benefit to cover a friend's inability to be caught; to claim to steal a false name is also a great loss.
This is also the reason why Zeng Guofan can always make high-quality friends, and the purpose of his making friends is to let friends correct their shortcomings, not to flaunt themselves.
Each of us has a limited understanding, and it is inevitable that we will be hurt by joys and sorrows, at this time, if there are friends who can correct your mistakes, they can make you stronger and stronger.
The purpose of making friends is to make yourself strong, and if you only want to get help from your friends every day, then you will never be able to grow.
From the process of making friends with Zeng Guofan, we can get the following inspiration:
First, if you want to make quality friends, you must choose the environment, only by entering different circles, can you know more people.
Second, it is not that the more people you know, the more friends you have. After having a circle of knowing others, we must also be good at selection, only those who can correct their own shortcomings and spur their own growth and progress are worth making friends.
Do you think Zeng Guofan's method of making friends is useful?
Author: Ke Duo (real name Tian Jianzhong, media person, historical and cultural researcher, author of "Zeng Guofan Heart Study", "Zeng Guofan Official Marketing", "Zeng Guofan for the OfficialDom of learning: promotion and promotion have a way", "Zeng Guofan power strategy" and so on)
References: The Complete Works of Zeng Guofan, The Biography of Zeng Guofan, The Great Biography of Zeng Guofan, The Annals of Zeng Guofan, Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, etc.