A scholar must have three things: to read, a scholar must have ambition (or ambition), secondly, he must have knowledge (or insight), and thirdly, he must have perseverance (or perseverance). This is what Zeng Guofan said. Zeng Guofan was a politician, strategist, Neo-Confucianist, writer, calligrapher, and the founder and commander of the Hunan Army in the late Qing Dynasty.

Zeng Guofan's "Three Haves" are the key to reading. Zeng Guofan believes that "for Gaishi people to study, first they must have ambition, secondly they must have knowledge, and thirdly they must have perseverance. If you have ambition, you will not be willing to be vulgar, if you have knowledge Then you know that knowledge is endless and you don’t dare to be self-satisfied with just one thing. It’s like a river boy looking at the sea or a well frog looking at the sky. They are both ignorant. If you have perseverance, you can’t accomplish anything without one of them.” p>