Zeng Guofan can be called a generation of famous courtiers in the late Qing Dynasty, and the Xiang Army he founded was famous for quelling the rebellion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zeng Guofan is also famous in history.
In fact, Zeng Guofan's fame and fortune are all hard worked out, not smooth sailing, he has encountered three "life and death disasters" in his career as the commander of the Xiang Army, for which he has made a will.
First, a will was first made when the soldiers defeated Jinggang. In April of the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854 AD), Zeng Guofan led the Xiang army to defeat Jinggang, and he committed suicide by throwing water into Tongguanzhu without land, but Zhang Shoulin and others struggled to rescue him. After retiring to Changsha Miaofeng Peak, he wrote down his will in pessimism and despair and decided to commit suicide: hurry to send the coffin home, the faster and better, to comfort his father's hopes. Do not hang outside and be subject to bribery. The remaining items of the internal silver money, except for the coffin fee, can not be left after arriving at home, and they must be handed over to the grain table.
It means transporting his coffin home, and of course the place of burial is mentioned at the end. Fortunately, at this time, Xiangtan received a good report from the general Taqibu, and the morale of the Xiang army was greatly boosted, and Zeng Guofan no longer committed suicide.
The second is to make a will after Qi men are trapped. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861 AD), Zeng Guofan was trapped in the county seat of Qimen County, Anhui Province, and when the grain was cut off, he decided to martyr the country. So he sent a letter to his sons Ji Ze and Ji Hong to explain the aftermath. As a result, Zeng Guofan's suicide note still mentions the burial place of Bai Ji.
The third is to make a will before handling the "Tianjin Teaching Case". In May 1870, the ninth year of Tongzhi, the "Tianjin Teaching Case" incident that shocked China and foreign countries occurred. Zeng Guoqian, the governor directly under the direct subordination, was instructed to deal with the "Tianjin Teaching Case". Before going to Tianjin, Zeng Guofan wrote a long letter to his sons Ji Ze and Ji Hong, arranging for everything after his death. Zeng Guofan emphasized the four words of Ye Luoguigen in his will. The coffin was asked to return to Xiangxiang, but also did not account for the cemetery.
After the "Tianjin Teaching Case" was dealt with, Zeng Guofan, who had achieved great success, knew that his situation was very "dangerous", so he began to consider the place to live after death. He began to instruct his younger brother Zeng Guoquan to choose a cemetery near the ancestral tomb in his hometown.
Zeng Guoquan then found the most famous local feng shui expert on-site inspection, the result is that the Zeng family ancestral tomb does not have a good location, only his parents' cemetery near a good feng shui place, but the place is slightly smaller, so Mr. Feng Shui said that as long as his parents' coffin is moved outward, he can free up an excellent feng shui treasure land.
After Zeng Guoquan wrote to Zeng Guofan to inform him of the relevant situation, Zeng Guofan replied with 8 words: Resolutely cannot relocate the ancestral tomb.
After that, Zeng Guofan decided to expand the feng shui treasure land in search of a safe place to the entire hometown of Xiangxiang.
In March of the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871), Zeng Guofan's friend Guo Songtao, the governor of Guangdong, and Feng Zhuohuai, an old friend who was then the governor of Liangjiang, came to Zeng Guofan's hometown of Xiangxiang Twenty-four to personally choose a cemetery for him.
The two first searched for 12 feng shui treasures in Xiangxiang, and then invited Zeng Guoquan to come and agree on the final feng shui treasure land.
The eyes of the three people stayed most on the Dongtai Mountain in the east of the city. "Dongtai Mountain", also known as "Phoenix Mountain", is 323 meters above sea level, and there is a Phoenix Ancient Temple on it, which is called Xiangxiang Famous Mountain.
The three of them looked at Dongtai Mountain for two days and came to the conclusion of "three goodnesses" and "three doubts", "three goodnesses" refers to the three major advantages of this mountain, and "three doubts" refers to three major certain places such as this mountain being too steep. In the end, I still feel that Dongtai Mountain is an excellent feng shui treasure. So he wrote his opinion to Zeng Guofan.
Zeng Guofan's reply was also unexpected, and he directly declined. The reason is that "Dongtai Mountain" is the mountain of xiangxiang, and if he occupies it, it will definitely hinder the development of Xiangxiang, an ancient cultural county. For the sake of the long-term future of his hometown, he decided to give up. It also expressed its willingness to add more to the remaining 11 places.
Facts have proved that Zeng Guofan was indeed a forward-looking great man, and in the winter of 1895 AD, the Xiangjun generals Liu Jintang and Chen Ne led the gentry to build the Dongshan Academy under dongtai Mountain, which was later changed into a new-style school, and later cultivated outstanding talents of Mao Zedong, Chen Geng, Tan Zheng, and Xiao San, and was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Just when Zeng Guofan had not set up a cemetery, he was deteriorating and died quietly shortly after returning to the post of governor of Liangjiang.
After Zeng Guofan's death, his coffin was transported to Changsha on May 18, the eleventh year of Tongzhi, and stayed at Jinpenling. After that, it was time to select the site of the tomb.
In the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873), just after the Spring Festival, Zeng Jize, the son of Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Weiquan came to Xiangxiang to choose a cemetery.
The two first came to see "Five Dragon Chong" and "Wengong Mountain" to check out.
Wulong Chong and Wengong Mountain are a hundred miles away from Zeng Guofan's newly built mansion Lotus Leaf Twenty-four Fuhou Hall,
Then go to the Tongliang Mountain Zizhu Forest in the south of Xiangxiang to see the cemetery, these two places are the places where Zeng Guofan and his family used to travel to Lulu to xiangxiang county. Zeng Guofan Xianfeng spent the last time he crossed this mountain in June when he ended his shou system and was ordered to aid Zhejiang in June. The pavilion at the top of the hill still has the inscription of Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Jize also has the poem of Yongtong Liangshan, and it is inevitable that they have a special love for this mountain.
As a result, Zeng Jize was very satisfied with the purple bamboo forest, and soon made a move to "paint the mountain cave".
At this time, Guo Songtao also made a special trip to Changsha to mourn Zeng Guofan, and when he heard that his tomb had not yet been finalized, he also came to Xiangxiang.
He personally went to the Purple Bamboo Forest of Tongliang Mountain, the tomb site of Zeng Jize's selection.
As a result, Guo Songtao, who knew feng shui quite well, carefully looked at the purple bamboo forest, shook his head, and then conveyed his opinion to Zeng Jize euphemistically.
Zeng Jize then came to the Zizhu Forest again and asked people to dig up the soil layer, only to see that there were a large number of "tender stones" hidden under the soil layer, which was the most taboo burial, so Zeng Jize decided to follow Guo Songtao's advice and abandon here.
In this way, in the territory of Xiangxiang County, there was no ruyi feng shui treasure land. Later, the Zeng family expanded the scope of the cemetery, and finally Zeng Guoquan believed that the Lion Peak in the sun of Fulong Mountain in Pingtang Town, Yuelu District, Changsha City, was a treasure of feng shui.
Zeng Jize was also satisfied after the on-site inspection, so he finally determined that the Lion Peak in Fulong Mountain was his burial place.
In October of the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, the Zeng family officially launched the preparations for the Pingtang Fulongshan Cemetery. Half a month later, Zeng Guofan's coffin was carried out of Jinpen ridge, first boarded a boat at Nanhu Port on the Xiang River, then went down the river, stopped at the Great West Gate of Changsha, accepted condolences from all walks of life, and buried his coffin on the lion ridge of Fulong Mountain on the fourth day of November.
At this point, two years and nine months after the death of a generation of famous ministers, Zeng Guofan finally returned to dust.
So far, more than a hundred years have passed, and Zeng Guofan's mausoleum has also been patronized by tomb robbers many times, and then repaired, and has now become a national key cultural relics protection unit. His cemetery is now about 2 kilometers away from the urban area of Changsha City, and about 60 meters away from the tomb of Zeng Guofan, there is an inscription written by li Hongzhang, a university scholar, and a famous calligrapher Huang Ziyuanshu, describing the life and deeds of Zeng Guofan.