Mo Wen harvests, but requires cultivation.
-This is the motto that Zeng Guofan followed all his life. In fact, this sentence was not initiated by Zeng Guofan, but was given to Zeng by Tang Jian, a master of Neo-Confucianism in the Qing Dynasty. In the twenty-first year of Daoguang, he wrote "Jifu Water Conservancy" and wrote a banner in regular script "If you are not a saint, you are an animal. You only ask about farming and don't ask about harvest. Good Tang Jian was presented to Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan praised this couplet and hung it in the living room. Later, I made a slight change to Zeng Guofan's diary, and there was "if it is not a saint, it must be an animal." Mo Wen harvests, but requires farming. "Eternal absolute.
"It's either a saint or an animal." This sentence sounds a little extreme, but it is actually Mr. Zeng Guofan's strict requirements for himself, asking him to establish a good character and not tolerate a little bit. Otherwise, once you regress, you will become an animal.
"Mo Wen gets it, but requires hard work". Warn people, don't just think about harvest, if there is no effort, then autumn will be fruitful. The analogy between doing business and studying is the same. You should have a wealth of accumulation, and you will naturally be familiar with it.
This couplet was written on July 12th, the first year of Xianfeng, namely 185 1. At this time, he was a right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites and a second-class official of the imperial court. As always, he is strict with himself. It is difficult for people today to understand Zeng Guofan at that time. At first glance, this couplet seems ridiculous. Why can't you be a saint, but you must be an animal? Isn't there a chance to be an ordinary person who is not a sacred animal? This couplet actually shows Zeng Guofan's resolute attitude of cross the rubicon and his good ambition: "What's going on in the world is exciting and barely half." You can only go if you are a saint, or you will degenerate into an animal! It has been praised and quoted for 200 years, and it is with this ambition that you are either a saint or an animal. Zeng Guofan was able to leap from an unknown peasant son to a famous minister and official in history, which made his extraordinary life and the achievement of "being a saint inside and being a king outside".