The inspirational story of Zeng Guofan, the minister of ZTE in the late Qing Dynasty, was widely circulated. Many people are concerned about his operation in officialdom and how to integrate resources, but they don't know his efforts in self-cultivation. Zeng Guofan recorded in the Diary of the Twenty-second Year of Daoguang that he insisted on studying the hexagrams in the Book of Changes every day, reflected on his words and deeds today, mercilessly pointed out his shortcomings, and criticized and corrected them. At the same time, read classics and write 200 words of calligraphy.

The first thing about Qunjing is that it is said that Qunjing should have been thoroughly read and studied before the imperial examination. After entering the official sea, after further research, I did not take the word chapter as a service, went straight into the righteousness and realized it with my heart. Follow-up introspection, stick to a true heart, completely leave no way out for yourself, and cross the rubicon to pursue a new road. This set of kung fu can be described as both benevolence and righteousness, introspection and meditation, which is in line with the tradition of "being pragmatic with reason". Through the understanding of conscience, it is applied to daily life, so as to achieve the unity of knowledge and action. There are three aspects to learning from Zeng Guofan:

First, Confucian cultivation should first aim at "exhaustion". Confucian practice is a hard process. There is no such thing as an epiphany. You must insist on it day by day and wash it one by one. Although Confucianism also emphasizes the importance of an unpublished thought, it must be completely reflexive and resolutely corrected in order to be effective. Without the firm ambition of "stop at the best", it is impossible to persist. Wang Yangming said that it is easy to get rid of thieves in the mountains, but it is difficult to get rid of thieves in the heart, because we must have strong inner rationality and support powerful forces to deal with our inner desires, distractions and greed. And sincerely formed outside. For example, what Zhu said is "to preserve justice and destroy human desires", and what Yang Ming said is "to conscience" and what Buddhism said is "not to make dust".

Second, Confucianism pursues the unity of knowledge and practice. The so-called self-cultivation in Confucianism is different from the simple cultivation of mind in Buddhism and Taoism, but requires the unity of body and mind and the unity of knowing and doing. We should not only strive to make our words and deeds conform to the road, but also improve our quality and realm on the basis of improving our understanding, and we should also apply the kung fu of cultivating our hearts to our work and sharpen our skills. Once firmly believed that "everything is in the daily life of the family", he persisted in the arduous cultivation process, gradually got rid of the remaining problems such as arrogance, neglect and laziness, and gradually approached a pure, sincere and sophisticated saint. Therefore, some scholars say that it is difficult for Confucianism to practice Buddhism, because in the state of birth, it is easy to reach a state of meditation and introspection without the noise of the world, and it is easy for Confucianism to seek a state of practice between the noisy world and the complicated world, which requires stronger heart and self-control.

Third, we should be brave to get rid of old habits and be brave in innovation. Zeng Guofan's cultivation is like practicing Tai Ji Chuan. First, through relaxation and gentleness, he broke his own brute force and turbidity, gradually developed the innate strength of combining rigidity with softness, and reached the realm of harmony between man and nature. Reading 200 words every day and learning classics every day is a breakthrough. In the classics, there is a sense of justice and justice. Once every day, learning is no longer sentence reading and word meaning, but comparing one's own experiences and actions one by one, looking for gaps and fallacies and cleaning up dirt. What is broken must be established. Standing is to fill the heart with the way of heaven and earth, which belongs to the practice of "sex" The merit of Confucian "sex" is different from the merit of Taoist life. The doctrine of the mean says that destiny is nature, frankness is Tao, and cultivation is teaching. Honest work is the road to Tao. Confucius said, when you stand at thirty, you will achieve something; when you are forty, you will not be confused; when you are fifty, you will know the world; when you are fifty, you will know the destiny; when you are in the body, you will get the Tao; when you are sixty, you will be smooth and undisturbed; when you are seventy, you will be in harmony with the sky. Self-cultivation is a lifelong matter, and the sage gains enlightenment at fifty. I'm afraid ordinary people can't reach it every day. I have to sigh that Zeng Guofan's counterattack has its profound kung fu, and it is by no means the so-called "successful" trick of gaining speculation can work!