Zeng Guofan is a very powerful person. How awesome is it? Liang Qichao said that this man is not only the most powerful person in modern Chinese history, but also one of the most powerful people in the entire history of China; he is not only the most powerful person in China, but also one of the most powerful people in the world. Zeng Guofan was a famous politician and military strategist in the late Qing Dynasty. He was known as the most perfect person in ancient and modern times. But what you don’t know is that Zeng Guofan has another outstanding characteristic. He is the person with the worst personal conditions in Chinese history but high personal achievements. As for Zeng Guofan, he was not only good at everything that a young man could have, but he also had four fatal bad habits in his character. It is said that the situation is easy to change, but the nature is hard to change, but Zeng Guofan vowed to change his bad habits and even personality, and he also determined to learn to be a saint! Whether he has great ambitions or is an idiot's dream, what is commendable is that Zeng Guofan actually did it. So, how did Zeng Guofan transform from a person full of problems to a sage that future generations admire and learn from? Let's first take a look at what problems he has. Zeng Guofan's first problem was that he was extremely impetuous and could not sit still. The impression left by Zeng Guofan to future generations is that he was very patient. From this point of view, he looks very much like a person with earth signs, such as Taurus. But let’s check Zeng Guofan’s birthday. What is his birthday? It's actually a Sagittarius. We know that Sagittarius people tend to be lively, outgoing, spontaneous, and have poor willpower. Zeng Guofan was like this in his youth. He was a person who loved making friends, visiting people, and chatting. Self-management skills are very poor. In the spring of the 20th year of Daoguang's reign, he went to Beijing to take up the post of reviewer of the Hanlin Academy and officially began his career as a Beijing official. Hanlin officials were very leisurely. For a month, they only had to work for two days on the first and fifteenth day of the junior high school. Everyone met in class. Let's have a meeting. So when he first became a Beijing official, he had a lot of time, but because he couldn't sit still, he didn't have much time to study and study. So what does he often go there for? Look at the killing. At that time, Zeng Guofan lived in the south of the city, near Caishikou. Caishikou was a place of execution during the Qing Dynasty, so Zeng Guofan would go with his friends every now and then to watch the executions. After reading it, everyone wants to make some comments. Today's killing was very fast, and the guy's head flew out in one fell swoop. The thing that didn't work the day before yesterday, it took several cuts to cut it off, and the guy kept screaming in pain. Opening Zeng Guofan's diary, I found that he often blamed himself. He said: ""I have nothing to do when I go out and it's so windy that I can't sit still, so why be so impetuous!" "It means that he has nothing to do, but he insists on going out for a walk. It's so windy and he doesn't like to stay at home. He scolds himself for being too impetuous." , unable to read; ""Yan Qi, he did nothing, wasted the day again, just sighing..." It means that he fell asleep again and couldn't get out of bed. He didn't do anything serious this day, and wasted it again. "Zeng Guofan's Diary" records that once the Hanlin Academy had a holiday of more than 40 days. Before the holiday, Zeng Guofan made a very detailed plan for himself, telling him which books I would read during these 40 days. How many articles should I write? When the 40 days were over, Zeng Guofan made a summary for himself. Apart from writing a few letters home, Zeng Guofan did nothing else. Zeng Guofan knew that he was wasting his time, but he was unable to change. This can be said to us. There are striking similarities between most people's youth. Zeng Guofan's second problem was that he was arrogant and poorly cultivated. Although Zeng Guofan had a difficult time taking the exams for scholars, he later passed the imperial examinations and the Jinshi exams. He is the only Jinshi in his circle of friends, so he is inevitably arrogant and thinks that he is great and better than others. In fact, this is not Zeng Guofan's problem, many people are like this when they are young. After Beijing, Zeng Guofan made many friends. His two best friends said that his biggest problem was arrogance. His good friend Chen Yuanyan said that he was "sentimental", which means you Zeng Guofan. From the top of your head to your heels, every pore exudes an air of arrogance. When people interact with you, their first impression is that you are very arrogant and "self-righteous", which means that you think you are right and others are wrong in everything. , can't listen to any different opinions. Another good friend of Zeng Guofan said that when he first met people, he seemed very humble, but after interacting with people for a long time, he unconsciously showed his arrogant nature because of his poor cultivation. Zeng Guofan had a bad temper and often had conflicts with people in his first few years in Beijing.

Once, he and a fellow villager, Zheng Xiaoshan, the head of the Criminal Department, had a disagreement over a trivial matter at a friend's dinner party, so they had a quarrel and started fighting across the table. After everyone was pulled away, they pointed at each other's noses and yelled curses. In his diary of that day, Zeng Guofan said that he "was abusive, so angry and indifferent that he almost forgot about himself and his relatives." He cursed a lot of very unpleasant words and even "greeted" the other person's family. Zeng Guofan's third problem was " "Hypocrisy". Of course, this ""hypocrisy"" does not mean how evil he is, but it means that he is like ordinary people, easy to say good things in social situations and give out some insincere compliments. And he chats with others. Sometimes he also likes to talk, pretend to understand, and show off himself. Zeng Guofan has a diary saying that on the fourth day of October in the 22nd year of Daoguang's reign, a friend named Li Jiyun came to visit him, "... to express his recent poetry." What does it mean to "praise without sincere words, but to express profound words when talking about poetry?" Li Jiyun came to visit him at home, took a stack of poems he had just written, and asked Zeng Guofan to comment on them. Zeng Guofan took a look at them and found that this poem He didn’t write very well, but he said this when he opened his mouth: Oh, it’s not bad, it’s very improved. This song is good, that song is good. As he talked, he started to show off his poetic literacy, saying that I have recently What book have you read? I feel like you should write like this here and that way there... After chatting for a long time. After sending Li Jiyun away, Zeng Guofan felt very embarrassed when he reflected on his words and deeds. ""Luxury". Why was Zeng Guofan so lustful? It's not that he went to sleep among flowers and willows, but that he had a major hobby, which was to look at beautiful women. At that time, women couldn't leave the door or take a step outside. So you can’t see beautiful women on the street. What should Zeng Guofan do? Go to a friend’s house to see her. For example, he saw her friend’s wife at her house. She looked really beautiful, so he looked at her and said, " "Looking at her several times is rude." Today, it seems that this is not a big deal. As a young man, it was a normal instinct to look at a beautiful woman more than once. However, Zeng Guofan thought this was a serious problem. Once, Zeng Guofan learned that his friend had a concubine who was very beautiful. He was very curious and insisted on taking a look. So he found an excuse and pretended to borrow a book. After chatting for a while at this friend's house, he forced the friend to bring the concubine out for him to see. Zeng Guofan was actually a very humorous person. When he met the concubine, he made some jokes and teased her. He just returned home. He wrote in his diary: ""My friend Naji is lustful and disrespectful. " Another time, Zeng Guofan paid New Year greetings to a classmate during the Chinese New Year. This classmate's family was very rich, and he had many concubines and beautiful women. Zeng Guofan opened his eyes and looked at it many times. When he returned home, he said in his "Diary": " That day, I kept looking at him evilly. I was really not a human being. I was completely ashamed. What else could I ask? "Zeng Guofan's wife's surname is Ouyang, and she is not very beautiful. She looks a bit like a man and has no beauty. Zeng Guofan returned home after celebrating the New Year, looked at his wife, and then thought about his concubine, he felt that he was so shortchanged. It happened that Ouyang was in poor health that day and was groaning in bed. Zeng Guofan was even more disgusted, so he was in a bad mood at night and was tired of hearing the sound of sex. "I simply ran away from home and went out to chat with my friends." There are many common shortcomings of ordinary people and the above-mentioned four bad habits. So, how did Zeng Guofan turn from a person full of problems to a sage? The most critical turning point was when Zeng Guofan came to Beijing. Beijing, Beijing is a place where talents gather together. Talents from all over the country are selected through various examinations and gathered here. In the Hanlin Academy, Zeng Guofan met many great intellectuals with their temperament and demeanor. Completely different from the scholars he had met in the countryside of Hunan, he discovered a new style in them, which was called the scholar's style and the nature of a great Confucian. Before arriving in Beijing, Zeng Guofan had already overcome his inferiority complex and successfully passed the exams for Juren and Confucianism. Jinshi, who had the last laugh and stood out among so many scholars in his hometown, originally thought he was great, so he was very proud for a while, but when he arrived in Beijing, he felt inferior again.

Zeng Guofan, who had just arrived in Beijing, was a typical Hunan native leopard. He spoke an incomprehensible Xiangxiang dialect, looked rustic, and dressed in a rustic style. In addition, I haven’t read many books, because compared with the elites of the Hanlin Academy, what Zeng Guofan read before was basically exam-oriented textbooks. Except for the Four Books, Five Classics and eight-part essays, he had never read anything. When talking to others, Just show timidity. Therefore, after entering the Hanlin Academy, not many people thought highly of Zeng Guofan. I don't even like chatting with him. Being despised and ridiculed by others hit Zeng Guofan's pain point. I originally thought that if I was admitted as a scholar or Jinshi, I would never be looked down upon by others again in this life, let alone be ridiculed by others. But walking into Beijing, Zeng Guofan suddenly realized that he was nothing. His words and deeds were so incompatible with his colleagues and superiors. What you know and learn is simply pitiful in the eyes of others. What is more difficult to conceal is the innate rusticity. Although he became an official in the court, Zeng Guofan was still a farmer at heart, with a stubborn and poor character. Zeng Guofan felt this kind of pressure when he failed six times. When he was regarded as a negative example of candidates in the province, Zeng Guofan also felt the pressure of being forced into a dead end. The first two times, Zeng Guofan Choosing to fight, what should I do this time? To change yourself, you must first set a goal for yourself. What goal is it? The goal Zeng Guofan set for himself is not simple: the sage said that everyone has it. Buddha nature, so as long as you work hard, everyone can become a Buddha. Confucianism says that everyone has the quality of a saint. In other words, everyone has the potential to be a saint. As long as you work hard enough, you can achieve it. The realm of a saint. "Everyone can become a saint." What is a "sage"? The so-called saint is a perfect person. Through his diligent study and hard work, he has mastered the ultimate truth and understands the laws of the operation of everything in the world. In this way, he knows everything and will succeed in everything he does. Everyone has the desire for self-improvement, especially youth, which is when a person pursues perfection most. The age of thirty is the most important year in Zeng Guofan's life history. It was a very important year. This year he determined to learn to be a "sage". He decided to reborn and start a new life. "If you don't become a saint, you will become a beast." In other words, I can only have one The choice is to be an ignorant person or to be a saint. There is no middle way. There was a man in Beijing named Tang Jian, who was a great Confucian. Tang Jian came to ask him for advice. Tang Jian said that the most important thing is to cultivate yourself every day. They had to keep a diary, and they had to keep a few reflection diaries every night to reflect on how well they had done that day. Even if there were any urgent matters on the way, or even if they were seriously ill, they would not break this rule at that time. Another great scholar named Wo Ren once asked him for advice on self-management. His method was to keep a diary. From getting up in the morning to going to bed at night, every word and every move should be written down, and then reflect on yourself. Correction. I write in regular script every day, and I have written a total of thirty books. There are many figures in history, such as Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Shi, and Lu Xun. These people all said that if you want to keep a diary, you should keep it for a lifetime. Keep it in mind until his death. For example, the last day of Lu Xun's diary was written on October 18, 1936. Why did he write it down to this day? So, Lu Xun died the next day. Therefore, diary is the best way to train people's perseverance and perseverance. Zeng Guofan also summed up a new method of keeping a diary. First, make diary writing a big deal and prepare a new, high-quality diary. Then he made a diary for himself. , use Gong Kai to write a diary. What is Gong Kai? Gong means respectful and neat regular script. We know that writing in regular script should be meticulous. Second, the diary should not only record things, but also remember the heart. From the day when Zeng Guofan determined to learn to be a saint on the first day of October in the 22nd year of Daoguang, he began to transform himself in all aspects. He ate, drank, and slept every day from getting up to going to bed. , all need to conduct self-supervision. Holding himself to the standards of a saint, he must carefully recall his words and deeds every day. If he finds anything that does not meet the requirements of a saint, he must identify it and reflect deeply. Third, Zeng Guofan got up every morning and wrote a diary. One is because I wake up with a clear mind in the morning. Another function of writing a diary is to awaken one's own heart and free it from a state of laziness and confusion to face the challenges of the day.

The young Zeng Guofan had four major shortcomings: he was impetuous and could not sit still; he was arrogant and liked to fight with others; he was hypocritical and liked to brag; he was lustful. His self-transformation starts from these four points. After Zeng Guofan started writing a diary, he set twelve rules and lessons for himself in the diary. The main contents include the following points: First, get up early. Get up before dawn every day and never stay in bed. The second is ***. *** half an hour every day, that is, one hour. Let your mind calm down, don't be impetuous every day, and don't be led by things. The third is to read well. Read ten pages of scriptures and ten pages of history books every day, and never change no matter what you encounter. The fourth is to speak with caution. That is to say, always be careful not to speak carelessly, and be careful with every word you say. The fifth is to protect yourself, save labor, abstain from food and drink. Abstinence means controlling desires. To put it bluntly, it means controlling sexual intercourse. Be careful about your diet and eat in moderation. This is a way to maintain health. Sixth, have a conversation every day over tea. Just take notes, find a notebook, name it, Tea Over Tea Talk, and record all kinds of inspiring things that friends talk about when chatting. Chatting can’t be in vain. Seventh, I have to write a few articles and poems every month and have fixed tasks. The eighth is to practice calligraphy. Every day after breakfast, you have to write for half an hour. The last one is not to go out at night, and don’t go out to chat with friends after dark. In this way, Zeng Guofan set himself a course that must be completed every day. In this way, his overall learning efficiency was greatly improved. Get up early, have sex, practice calligraphy, speak carefully, and protect yourself. Read ten pages of scriptures and ten pages of history books every day. Do a few articles and write a few poems every month. There are fixed tasks. By writing a diary, I not only set strict study tasks, but also have to do three things a day to constantly correct my bad habits. Zeng Guofan was even more vigilant in his diary about his favorite crimes of "insincerity", "hypocrisy", "exaggeration", "lasciviousness", etc. Every time a friend came to chat or a friend left, he would Reflecting in the diary. Among Zeng Guofan's four major problems, ""lust"" is the most difficult to correct. He also made a lot of efforts to avoid ""lust"". Whenever he glanced at a beautiful woman one more time, he would immediately return home. Write it down and scold yourself. Not only can he not tolerate looking at beautiful women, but he is also wary of the love between his husband and wife, and he can avoid it. Why? In my mind, I have always been very afraid of this " " color ". The so-called " " twenty-eight beautiful women have a crisp body, and they have a sword at their waist to kill the fool. Although there are no dead heads, secretly the bones of the emperor are withered. "Chinese people generally believe that ""lust"" will make people's health worse. Zeng Guofan often fell ill, so he believed that he needed abstinence. Therefore, he made up his mind to ""suffer from self-suffering every day"" and work hard every day. He said that if the cows and sheep see the saplings, they will bite them, and it will be useless if you cut them down. So the cows and sheep will calm down every day. Before going to bed, Zeng Guofan was so exhausted that he no longer had any other thoughts. So being a saint is not easy. It requires a person to develop his own nature every minute. Fighting, it is really sharp and sharp. "If you are not a saint, you will be a beast." Rather than saying that this is the goal Zeng Guofan set for himself, it is better to say that Zeng Guofan cut himself off in a last-ditch battle. All retreats. At this time, Zeng Guofan was determined to do only one thing in his life, which was to learn to be a saint. People are inert and have calculations of interests, and they are willing to stay in their psychological "comfort zone". The willingness to change one's living habits, whether they are good or bad, leads to most people never taking the risk to try and always repeating at a low level. But for some people, it seems that they are born to escape from the ""comfort zone"". Zeng Guofan is this kind of person because he has genes and is always ready to enter the " " learning zone". Because although he is stupid, he is very diligent; although he has many problems, he never forgets to make three mistakes in a day; although he has average talent, he dares to make " " "If you are not a sage, you will be a beast". So, did Zeng Guofan, who persisted to the end, quickly become a changed person? No. It is very difficult for a person to change the habits formed over decades. It is impossible to achieve it overnight. Teacher Zhang Hongjie, a famous writer, Ph.D. in history from Fudan University, and speaker of "Hundred Schools Forum" believes that we ordinary people only use 5% of our potential and 95% of our reserves in our lives. , never used it in my life.

So, how to mobilize the 95% of reserves? Zeng Guofan has a saying, called a chicken hatching an egg, which means to train yourself and have the patience and resilience like a hen hatching an egg. And self-cultivation requires a degree of relaxation, a combination of hardness and softness. It is necessary to combine strong fire boiling with warm fire cooking, which not only needs to be strong, but also tough. So, how did Zeng Guofan practice these methods, and after long-term persistence, he finally changed himself and became a ""sage""? How can ordinary people learn from these methods of self-cultivation of his? Produced by Linlang Think Tank "Zeng Guofan's 24 Tips" course taught by Mr. Zhang Hongjie, guest of "Hundred Forum" and millionaire best-selling author, carefully refines Zeng Guofan's 24 Tips for you, allowing you to learn from Zeng Guofan the methods of changing shortcomings and self-management. Use 600 minutes to change yourself, find opportunities to win in adversity, and complete a counterattack in life. The entire network has 4 million subscriptions. Platforms such as Ximalaya, Zhangyue, Lazy Listening and other platforms recommend the course. Just click on the link and listen to "Baijia". Forum" guest, millionaire best-selling author Zhang Hongjie will tell you about "Zeng Guofan's 24 Tips" and how to achieve a counterattack in life. "Zeng Guofan's 24 Tips" Audience Comments Linlang Think Tank Let the big names become your private think tank. Scan and follow the public on WeChat No.