Liang Qichao, Yuan Shikai, Li Hongzhang, Jiang Mao and others all admired Zeng Guofan. To this end, Liang Qichao personally compiled a book called "Zeng Wenzhenggong's Speech Notes", which contains Zeng Guofan's principles and famous quotes. Feng Tang, a famous surgeon, poet, writer, and executive of China Resources and McKinsey, also wrote a book about Zeng Guofan's management to teach everyone more straightforwardly how to get things done.

What is so special about Zeng Guofan? To put it bluntly, it’s just eight words. And these eight words are a summary of Confucianism, Houheiology, management, and the art of emperors. They are also simple truths that almost everyone can understand and understand. But the reason why great people can become great people is because they have a little more persistence, a little more diligence, and a little more faith than we do.

·Zeng Guofan’s Eight-Character Mantra

Zeng Guofan was the direct suppressor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and single-handedly founded the Hunan Army. At its peak, it had more than 200,000 troops.

Anyone who really understands history knows what the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is. Because I just wrote such an article the day before yesterday, I won’t say much more about it here.

In addition, that article was blocked by some platforms. Here, we will not talk about state affairs or the rights and wrongs of Zeng Guofan. Those things are left to the readers to comment on themselves. We will only talk about how Zeng Guofan achieved his success.

Zeng Guofan was a late bloomer. In his later years, he advocated learning from the West and personally sent the first batch of overseas students, thus reserving a group of high-end talents with international thinking for the future development of the Chinese nation.

In addition,

Zeng Guofan was also the promoter of China's first domestically produced ship, a pioneer of the Westernization Movement, and one of the founders of China's modern industry.

Until the middle and late period of the Republic of China, it was still gnawing at the industrial foundation left behind by the Westernization Movement.

The secret of Zeng Guofan's success is just eight words: "Think big, start small." These eight words may seem simple, but Zeng Guofan synthesized all the essence of Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu Xi's "Ehu Meeting" and are the most practical magic weapon in the Asian cultural circle.

Asians are very interesting and sometimes make people hate and love them at the same time.

In the eyes of Westerners, 1 1=2, but if you want to achieve great things in Asia, 1 1=?

For ten thousand people, there are ten thousand ways to play.

This is also the reason why Easterners can't make something like KFC, because every chef has his own idea, how can he make something in a unified style?

If you want to achieve great things in the East, if you don’t follow the way of the Orientals, you will only be beaten to death by reality.

Is junk food good? Everyone knows it’s bad. Then why do you still eat it? Because you can't escape this environment.

When you cannot change the entire environment, please try not to complain. Instead, you should understand these eight words of Zeng Guofan and strive to be like Zeng Guofan.

Being praised by others for hundreds of years and reviled by others for hundreds of years is the best choice.

·Zeng Guofan, a late bloomer

There was once a joke written like this: When Zeng Guofan was young, a thief went to his house to steal things. But at this time Zeng Guofan was reciting a short article, and he was still stumbling after reciting it for most of the night.

The thief was so angry that he got out from under the bed and said: Why are you so stupid? It's better to be a thief with me.

Judging from the literary works left behind by Zeng Guofan, he really did not have any amazing talents.

The same goes for fighting. I was almost forced to commit suicide by jumping into a lake by a military genius like Shi Dakai.

Looking at Zeng Guofan's early battles, almost every time they failed.

Zeng Guofan's fighting method was also very special, that is, he dug trenches before each attack and turned the offensive war into a defensive war.

But it took Zeng Guofan 12 years and 25 million taels of silver from the Qing Dynasty to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The Qing government's regular green camp army spent more than 23 million taels of silver from the Qing Dynasty in just 2 years, but was beaten to a pulp by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Zeng Guofan's biggest characteristic is his stability, that is, he thinks big and starts small, which is in line with the characteristics of people in Eastern official circles.

·How Zeng Guofan applied the eight-character mantra

In fact, Zeng Guofan’s success is a classic of Confucianism, managing himself, managing the team, and managing things.

Zeng Guofan hated those big liars who were full of new words and nonsense. Zeng Guofan likes people who are down-to-earth, capable, energetic, and not lazy.

The person's character is not what he considers, but whether the person can help him accomplish things.

Many of Zeng Guofan's men took advantage of the war to rob people of their property, and Zeng Guofan turned a blind eye to this.

In Zeng Guofan's eyes, as long as these people can listen to him, be used by him, and move in the direction he directs, without playing tricks with him, they are talents.

On the contrary, those people who are extremely smart but full of new ideas are what Zeng Guofan is most taboo on.

His big picture is to set a direction. And start small, that is, do things one by one, don't be hasty or impatient, and take one step at a time.

You can say he is public, you can also say he is private, but as long as he succeeds, everyone will look at him with admiration.

Why is it that Zeng Guofan’s successful teachings are regarded by some as rubbish among rubbish, while others regard him as a treasure among treasures? This is of course caused by the different ways of thinking between the East and the West.

The author believes that in the future society, only if the number of people who think like Zeng Guofan gradually decreases and everyone acts according to the rules of the game, will the society become better and better.