From the Complete Works of Zeng Guofan, several important teachings about children and grandchildren in Zeng Guofan's letters are summarized:
1, get up early
(1) Get up early and get up at dawn. Don't cling to love after waking up.
(2) Yu Jize: Can I get up early at home? Do younger brothers and sisters get up early?
Do you speak slowly and walk heavily? It is wise to keep notes from time to time.
(3) The size of a family always takes getting up early as the first meaning.
(4) Family governance is based on no initiative.
(5) I have three things to advise fourth brother: first, be diligent, second, get up early, and third, read the Five Classics.
(6) If you want to get rid of lazy words, the first meaning is not to pick them up.
2. Determination and perseverance
(1) Everything should be self-disciplined and built on an aboveboard basis.
(2) To study, beggars should be ambitious, knowledgeable and persistent.
(3) The ancient heroes were of great scale.
(4) If people can make up their minds, what can they do?
(5) Like Zell, Ji Liang reads 120 words every day. As long as there is constancy, there is no need to be greedy.
3. Learn Chinese characters
(1) If nothing happens, it is always appropriate to study Chinese characters, so I won't go into details about the rest.
(2) Get up early every day, learn a hundred Chinese characters and make a few social words.
(3) Every day, the pen keeps waving. Besides writing and working, I also learn a piece of calligraphy, which is not very intermittent.
(4) Can read and write continuously.
(5) As for writing, truth, line, seal and official script are all very good, and you can't stop for a day.
(6) Er's Jiao Xuan Monument is full of pen and ink, which is gratifying.
(7) My five brothers work hard at harmony, and Uncle Yuan is particularly talented.
(8) When my brother wants to learn Chinese characters, he always focuses on the tight box.
(9) Brother Yuan is in a hurry, but don't waste time on learning Chinese characters.
4. Diligence, frugality and modesty
(1) Yujiao's children are mainly diligent and modest.
(2) A gentleman is great and only modest.
(3) Are the nephews at home diligent recently? My brother's diligence is the best of all brothers. Is there any progress in the future?
(4) The sages and heroes of the past dynasties, that is, those who want to stand in the world, are nothing more than a diligent word, and those who are complacent through the ages are nothing more than a modest word. I will keep this word for life, so I don't care if I die at night!
(5) Pride is evil, laziness is bad, and both are ways to destroy the family.
5. Farming and reading have been around for a long time
(1) fourth brother must read the five-ethics rule at home and learn every sentence. I expect fourth brother, that's all.
(2) A San read "On Teng Wengong" and the eldest daughter read "Yan Yuan Twelve"
(3) Jize's poetics has made some progress in recent days.
(4) mortals, only the word "Xiu De reading" is reliable.
(5) It is always important to study in Wu Jia, memorize classics and often give history lessons (just a short lecture every night is enough).
(6) The wise emperor advised me to teach Zell to learn eight-part essay, which was very reasonable, but I didn't start until I finished reading the Five Classics.
(7) Reading, reading, writing and writing are indispensable every day. Last year, I read the Historical Records of China and South Korea, and this year I read The Book of Changes Compromise. Readers include Four Books, Poems, Books, I Ching, Zuo Zhujing, Selected Works of Zhao Ming, Li, Du, Han, Su, Han, Ou, Zeng, Wang,. Non-high poetry recitation can not get its majestic outline, and non-dense poetry recitation can not get its far-reaching charm.
(8) There are thousands of words about the way to be a man, probably nothing more than the word "respect and forgive".
If only one generation can enjoy every official's home in the world, their descendants will be arrogant at first, then wander around, and finally there are many ravines, and those who can celebrate one or two generations are even rarer. In the home of merchants, thrift can last for three or four generations; The home of farming and reading can last for five or six generations; Filial piety can last for ten generations and eight generations. Today, teenagers accumulated by their ancestors leave early and return late, fearing that they will be exhausted. So I educate my brothers and children, and I hope this is a home for cultivating filial friends, not a place for being an official.
The vast majority of bureaucrats in the world have exhausted their property in just one generation. Their children and grandchildren were arrogant and lazy at first, and then they drifted around and died in the ravine. It rarely lasts for a generation or two. Very rich people who do business can continue to enjoy three or four generations if they are diligent and housekeeping. Poor family, cautious and thrifty, can last five or six generations. A harmonious and friendly family that respects elders can last for ten generations and eight generations. Today, relying on the merits accumulated by my ancestors, I can succeed when I was young and my family business is prosperous, but I am worried that I will run out of enjoyment alone. Therefore, I teach my brothers and sons and nephews, hoping that everyone will strive for strength and make our family a hardworking, filial, friendly and harmonious family, not an ordinary bureaucratic family.
6, inspection and correction
(1) Zell's handwriting is very talented, but a little less energetic. It takes a lot of effort. Don't give up your gift.
(2) Yu Jize Ji Hong (behave carefully and speak slowly) "behave carefully and speak slowly". You should remember these two words all your life, and you can't always ignore them. (He knows that Muze's behavior is sometimes unstable and his speech is sometimes light, so he is warned to remember this for the rest of his life. )
(3) Before I was forty-six, I did nothing and worked hard for nearly five years. Now everything remains the same.
From reading to being a man, Zeng Guofan explained it. He attached importance to the talents and character of future generations, not only set a good example for himself, but also reflected on his own and future generations' shortcomings from time to time.
Zeng Guofan's curriculum
1, clean and conscientious, always fearless (advocating strict self-discipline)
2. Sit-in every day (sit-in)
Step 3 get up early at dawn (get up early)
4. Reading is unique. After reading a book, he will not read his book for the time being (study wholeheartedly).
5, read the history of the twenty-third history, read ten pages a day, although some things are uninterrupted (reading history books)
6. When keeping a diary, it is necessary to keep regular. If you feel guilty during the day (write a diary to examine yourself).
7. Tell an article in every diary after a meal (gain knowledge that you lack every day).
8. I can write a few poems every month without forgetting them (I don't give up my existing skills every month)
9. Be careful what you say
10, nourishing qi (temperament)
1 1, take care of yourself (take care of yourself)
12, writing, writing after breakfast (practicing writing)
13, don't go out at night.
In his later years, Zeng Guofan summed up his own life experience and said that a person's life is like a process of fruit ripening. Don't worry and don't slack off. Human efforts and God's cultivation will make a tree grow taller quietly, and it will also make a person mature slowly: "Without help, the flat land will grow taller in thousands of feet."