The birth of a prominent family is often inseparable from three things: creation, virtue, and effort.
Before the li hongzhang family in the late Qing Dynasty, the entire six generations were rural farmers with their backs to the loess and facing the sky, but that is, starting from the sixth generation of the Li family and Li Hongzhang's grandfather Li Dianhua, the Li family in Hefei, Anhui Province, ushered in a glimmer of "flying yellow Tengda".
This glimmer of light is very humble, but it is precious, it is not something else, but the spirit of "farming and reading" that is both traditional and difficult to adhere to in the countryside. At this point, the Li Hongzhang family and the Zeng Guofan family have the same magic, and zeng guofan's grandfather Xinggang Gong is the same, who has an unusually tenacious spirit of "cultivation and reading" throughout his life.
Li Hongzhang's grandfather Li Dianhua was a countryman who "did not enter the city for fifty years", but unlike ordinary countrymen, the repeated frustrations in the examination hall did not let him put down his books, and the hardships of life did not make him lose his fighting spirit.
The yellow land is easy for people to bow to the cruel reality, and then become a complete grass people, so the backbone and ambition of the ancestors are extremely important to the development of a family, and Li Hongzhang has half sadly and half gloriously recalled his grandfather's perseverance in hardship in his family letter.
"My grandfather was poor and sleepy, and by the end of the year, the creditor was like a carp across the river. Grandfather could not pay for it, only to support himself. Zhiwu is not a long-term solution, that is, to borrow from relatives and friends, and there is no repayment period for borrowing, and it is gradually disliked by relatives and friends. At that time, he was fortunate to have a wife, Zhou Juchu, who had a little savings, and when he was Zhou Ji, he advised his grandfather to be diligent and thrifty, and urgently ordered his children and grandchildren to go to school, and my grandfather had to have today from his words..."
The reason why the Li family is heavily in debt is largely because Li Dianhua helped his four sons study and prepare for the exam, and did not hesitate to spend money to invite local famous teachers to be Mr. Private School.
At first, Li Dianhua pinned his hopes on his eldest son, Li Wenyu, but unfortunately, the eldest son of the Li family did not grow up after passing the Xiucai examination. Looking at the creation of the second son and the third son's reading, it seems that it is also reincarnated in the fate of several generations of the Li family, although there is ambition, but there is no way.
But Li Dianhua did not give up, because he also had a youngest son, Li Wen'an, who was also Li Hongzhang's father.
Li Wen'an did not seem to be the material for reading, his body bones were very weak since he was a child, and his mind was also somewhat stunted. In the old days, schoolchildren were enlightened at the age of four, read at the age of eight, and it was not uncommon for them to pass the show at the age of fourteen or fifteen, but Li Wen'an was too far behind, and by the age of thirteen, he could barely read the four books and Mao poems.
Seeing that the future of the seventh generation of the Li family was about to darken en masse, Li Dianhua did one thing, he moved his family to an ancient well.
The townspeople said that Li Dianhua's move brought creation to the Li family, and that the ancient well was the rich well of the Li family.
This ancient well, called "Bear Brick Well", is said to have been dug by a local official surnamed Xiong in the Ming Dynasty. The townspeople said that since moving to this ancient well and drinking the water in the ancient well, the Li family has begun to make a mark, and the most vivid example is that Li Wen'an, who had no talent for reading at the beginning, actually won the Jiangnan Township Examination at the age of thirty-five, and four years later he was a high school student.
Is Li Wen'an's counterattack on the road of the imperial examination because of ten years of hard reading in the cold window, or because the Li family has really been created?
No one can say for sure, but one thing is very intriguing. When the Li family was alive, they chose to live by the well, and after death, they were buried around the well. After Li Dianhua died, he was buried in the jujube forest north of the bear brick well, which the Li family called the well grave; after Li Wen'an's death, he was buried not far, only a few miles away from the well.
Li Wen'an can open the Li family's "article through the country, the family road Yongchang" of the rich and famous road, in addition to the creation brought by this bear brick ancient well, Li Wen'an's original wife Li Shi seems to have also brought the Li family a grand fortune of Wangfu Wangzi.
And Li Wen'an's marriage to Li Shi also has some taste of virtue and kindness.
Li Shi is an abandoned baby who is having smallpox that Li Wen'an's father, Li Dianhua, picked up from the side of the road. I don't know if it was Li's fate or the Li family's relationship, Li Dianhua picked her up and took her home because of pity, and after several treatments, she actually healed, but her face was left with sparse white hemp.
Because he was lonely and miserable, he had no home, and since then, li has stayed in the Li family and become Li Dianhua's adopted daughter. Li Shi was born diligent and knows how to repay kindness, in order to work conveniently, she did not bind her feet, and ran in and out of the Li family all day to work.
But because she had white hemp on her face, big feet, and a wild child on her roots, she still became a joke in the countryside when she grew up.
But the blessed have their own destiny.
One night, Li Shi fell asleep by the stove after a tired day, and after Li Wen'an came back to see it, he took off his coat and quietly covered Li s body.
After Li Dianhua learned of this, he felt that his son had feelings for Li Shi, so he pushed the boat along the water and let the two marry.
At that time, the countryside ridiculed this marriage, and the world could not understand why the son of the Li family had fallen in love with such a rural joke.
However, since becoming the daughter-in-law of the Li family, the Li family soon showed her Wangfu luck, not only extremely good at governing the family, having the great wisdom of being open-minded and stable in case of trouble, but also very capable of breeding and being very good at teaching children, six sons Hanzhang, Hongzhang, Hezhang, Yunzhang, Fengzhang, and Zhaoqing all went out of the house under her education, and the two daughters also knew the book and the ceremony, and later married a good family.
Li Hongzhang once said that success began with his mother.
And the world has more evaluations, the Li family is bitter and willing, and the Li family is good at cultivating good fortune.
Speaking of the great fortune of the Li family, Li Wen'an's year of entering the army is also just right, and a few years later, Zeng Guofan, who became popular and purple, was also a jinshi in this year. In the same year, the middle school jinshi, that is, the so-called "same year", this is a very special and extremely important interpersonal relationship in the old officialdom, and the mutual appreciation and mutual promotion naturally formed between the "same year" are even more than those of the same countrymen, classmates and even the same ethnic group and the same robe to some extent.
Li Wen'an is "middle-aged and lower-class", has an introverted and upright personality, and does not belong to the kind of person in the official arena who is exquisite in eight aspects, but there is one point where he is very good and outstanding - his vision is extremely good. At that time, Zeng Guofan was only a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, an idle official who talked about the history of the scriptures, and his personality was also more than straight, and he was not flexible enough, but Li Wen'an admired and optimistic from the bottom of his heart, and he not only always maintained a close friendship with Zeng Guofan in the "same year", but also let his two sons Li Hanzhang and Li Hongzhang worship under Zeng Guofan early.
Behind the fortunate coincidence is prepared, Li Wen'an's contribution to the Li family, in addition to opening the door and expanding the road, the key is to lay the foundation stone for the two sons to fly in the future.
This is the great wisdom of for the sake of the family that is not apparent in the verses.
The origin of a family, in addition to the favor of creation, whether the ancestors have virtue is also an important part, from a small place to say that it affects the behavior of the future generations, from a large point of view, the quality of a family's morality often determines the breadth and narrowness of the family's future.
As a law enforcement officer of the Punishment Department, Li Wen'an served as a clerk in charge of Guangxi, Fengtian, and Shanxi, and also served as the supervisor of the Arraignment Department and the Autumn Trial Department.
Judging from Li Wen'an's official history, although he was an envoy with oil and water, he did not drill the way of promotion in the camp officialdom, otherwise his biggest official position would not be to guard and manage the prison.
In this regard, Li Hongzhang once said in the "Epitaph" written for his mother: His father "stubbornly did not agree with each other, and did not get the shangguan."
As a judicial officer of the Punishment Department, Li Wen'an has always been honest and upright, insisting on a fair judgment of the case, and whenever the case is tried and judged in the autumn, he reads the file every late at night, strives to accurately sentence him, and does not wrongfully accuse a good person. ”
In addition, Li Wen'an also has some compassion for the official.
When he was in charge of the Prison of the Punishment Department, he treated many good deeds of the prisoners well, which was praised by many colleagues, and there are several poems handed down that have been handed down, such as "Mr. Yong Li Yuquan's Poem for The Prison"——
"A soup and a meal are shallow and deep, whether it is enough to taste every meal." Sweet bitterness can push the army to 100,000, and the name left in prison is fragrant. ”
When Li Wen'an was in charge of the prison office, he personally inspected the two prisons under his command every day. Two prisons hold fifty thousand prisoners, each from south to north round and round a circle of five miles, two prisons once a day, that is, ten miles, there is no need to be so, this is rare.
In addition, he strictly forbade the abuse of prisoners by prison guards, stipulating that each prisoner should be guaranteed to give a full spoonful of rice, and in order to prevent prison guards from withholding two pounds, he must personally check before eating and check whether it is raw or cooked. The large prison has limited expenses, the dormitory is closed after dinner, and when he encounters prisoners who are released to prison at night, in order not to let these prisoners go hungry, he often pays for it out of his own pocket and donates rice to cook porridge. In the spring and summer, the prison is prone to infectious diseases, and he has always boiled medicinal soup early in preparation for urgent need. In addition, in the summer, he also had to buy fans and mats for prisoners, and in winter he had to donate cotton clothes, and he also specially prepared twelve quilts in each large prison for the sick prisoners to sweat and recuperate...
Every piece of history has many faces, many layers, different perspectives, different mentalities, see differently, read history, sometimes not necessarily required to be comprehensive, seek a mirror, seek truth, goodness and beauty, is the history of the past to shape today's you and me.
Li Wen'an's good deeds in prison, his compassion, or spontaneous actions, but this spontaneous action is undoubtedly to accumulate blessings for future generations.
Compared with Li Dianhua's generation, by Li Wen'an's generation, the Li family has shown a thriving atmosphere, and the eldest son, Li Hanzhang, has won the examination and entered the career; the second son, Li Hongzhang, is the most outstanding, that is, a high school student at the age of twenty-four; the third son, Li Hezhang, although he has repeatedly failed the township examination, is also a talent; the fourth son, Li Yunzhang, the fifth son, Li Fengzhang, and the sixth son, Li Zhaoqing, are also national students.
There is no doubt that among Li Wen'an's six sons, Li Hongzhang, the second son who entered the official field of the capital, seems to have become the new and greatest hope of the Li family.
The times make heroes, and the times also suffer heroes!
Just when the six sons gathered in the capital and Li Wen'an was very pleased, there was a thunderclap on a sunny day, and the Taiping Army led by Hong Xiuquan swept through half of China in half a year, and then went down the river from Wuhan to Jiangnan and Anhui.
It is said that when the news of the fall of Anqing in Anhui Province reached the capital, Li Hongzhang was still unaware of it and was wandering around the book stall in Haiwang Village. When an informed compatriot met him, he asked, "The old home of the provincial city has fallen, don't you know it yet?" Still have time to wander around? ”
At this time, Li Hongzhang was full of vigor, did not know the dangers of the military affairs, and was eager to try, and when he heard the news, he hurried to find Lü Xianji, a favorite minister of the Anhui Ministry of Works and Xianfeng, and instigated him to write to the imperial court and offer a strategy to quell the chaos.
On weekdays, Lü Xianji was very appreciative of Li Hongzhang's literary talents, and many of his own chapters were ghostwritten by Li Hongzhang, and when he heard Li Hongzhang's words, he also felt that he could use this to express his loyalty to the imperial court in Xianfeng, so he readily agreed.
Clinker, this time, Li Hongzhang's pen head is surging strongly, Xianfeng saw this ghostwriting chapter that Lü Xianji did not read carefully, and said on the spot, Lü Xianji has a good strategy, and quickly returned to his hometown to supervise and suppress bandits.
Lü Xian was basically in order to earn performance, and now he was in danger and sent to death, and he angrily said to Li Hongzhang: "You hurt me!" Now the emperor has sent me back to my hometown to fight! If you harm me, I will harm you!" I'm going to play please take you along as my assistant! ”
As a result, Li Hongzhang completely bid farewell to the official career of dancing and ink in a hasty manner.
The son returned to his hometown to fight with the Taiping Army, and his father Li Wen'an naturally could not idle in the capital and could only follow closely behind.
However, it is not easy for shusheng to lead soldiers to fight, and it is a minority that nine deaths have been refined into steel in their lifetimes, and the majority have died before they have been successful.
After the father and son returned to their hometown, although Li Hongzhang fought on the battlefield, he finally returned to his fate, but Li Wen'an did not have such good luck, and he died in battle after returning to his hometown for a year and a half.
Li Wen'an was defeated in Chao County, and before he died with hatred, he did not forget to leave his son behind: "Thieves are rampant, and the people are not happy." My father and son have received the grace of the country, this thief will not perish, why should the family be! Ru generation should work hard to become my ambition! ”
When Li Wen'an died, Li Hongzhang also almost fell into the death situation of the Taiping Army, but because of the funeral, he finally escaped from danger and had a later rise.
It's just that Li Wen'an, the seventh generation of the Li family, failed to see the glorious ancestors of Li Hongzhang's generation, but his hateful death bought life for his son at that moment.
Counting from Li Dianhua, the three generations of the Li family can be said to have made the full strength of one generation, and finally exchanged for the Li family's natural time and place and people-