During the Spring and Autumn Period, Sun Bao, a doctor of Lu, called "virtue", "merit" and "speech" the "three immortals". "meritorious service" means making contributions to the country and the people; "Making a statement" means making an insightful statement. These three things will last forever.

Zeng Guofan has been pursuing these three goals all his life.

And he also achieved this level through his unremitting efforts throughout his life.

1. meritorious service: the peasant uprising in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was put down and made great contributions.

2. Lide: He has three precepts and five proverbs. He stipulated to himself that he must do 12 items every day: respect, sit still, get up early, study hard, read history, be cautious, hold your breath, protect yourself, know what you will die in one day, remember what you can do in one month, write, and don't go out at night. It is really ancient and modern.

3. Argument: Zeng Guofan has written letters to his family, diaries, miscellaneous notes on various classics, historical comments and other works. His articles are the first in his generation, and he is known as the first in his dynasty, among which there are many famous sayings and aphorisms that have been passed down to later generations.

Therefore, Zeng Guofan was praised by later generations as "the first perfect man in China", and his representative work of "making a statement" was Zeng Guofan's letter.