Zeng Guofan (November 26, 1811 - March 12, 1872), Han nationality, was originally named Zicheng, given the courtesy name Bohan, and given the nickname Disheng. He was the 70th grandson of the sage Zengzi. A modern Chinese statesman, strategist, Neo-Confucianist, writer, and the founder and commander-in-chief of the Hunan Army. Together with Hu Linyi, he was called Zeng Hu, and together with Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong, he was called the four famous officials of the late Qing Dynasty. He was promoted to the governor of Liangjiang, the governor of Zhili, and the bachelor of Wuyingdian. He was granted the title of first-class Yiyong Marquis, with the posthumous title of Wenzheng.
Zeng Guofan had a lot of luck in his life. The two most terrifying axes were murder and brainwashing. If his murder is an indirect act, brainwashing is a direct operation, and he is particularly expert in this aspect. French thinker Rousseau has a famous saying: Whoever controls people's thoughts can control their actions. Zeng Guofan has a deep understanding of the benefits of brainwashing. He talked and wrote letters to his friends, subordinates and family members. He used the unique skill of brainwashing at all times and everywhere. He used Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism to maintain the natural principles, and put the diamond hoop that destroys human desires firmly on the other person's head. He recited the tightening curse three times no matter what happened. It was really unbearable, but one had to accept his kindness.
Zeng Guofan converted to Confucius and Mencius. Isn’t his sincerity and sincerity the best in the world? Mencius said: A person's trouble lies in being a teacher. Zeng Guofan committed this disease when he brainwashed people. However, when he brainwashes people, you can be baptized openly but refuse to be baptized secretly, which is obviously different from Hitler's fascist-style forcible brainwashing. If we must make an objective evaluation, Zeng Guofan's achievements in brainwashing are really not very high, and it is difficult to praise him. The most typical example is that his eldest son, Zeng Jize, had been taught by his strict father for many years, but once he abandoned what he had learned, he lent himself to Russia as an ambassador, hired foreign women, followed foreign customs, and practiced foreign etiquette, which absolutely went against the family tradition. Zeng Guofan could only turn a blind eye to this and let it go.
The funniest thing is that the brainwashing master Zeng Guofan has accumulated decades of teaching experience, but in the end, he discarded it like nothing, changed his usual appearance as a Neo-Confucianist, and presented himself as an ordinary Yin-Yang scholar. According to Zhu Kemin's "Records of Summer in the Rain Window": Zeng Wenzhenggong once called Wu Minshu and Guo Songtao and said: The inscription behind me must belong to the two monarchs. He decorated it as he pleased, and wrote the inscription and the conclusion, I wrote it myself, saying: Don't believe in books, believe in luck, and the public words will be passed down to all generations. At the end of his life, the mantra of Zeng Guofan's descendants was actually not to believe in books, but to believe in luck. Why not teach his children, friends, and subordinates to pay thousands and tens of thousands for glasses if they were broken on the spot?