Foreword:

Reasons for reading this book: I had a rough understanding of Zeng Guofan when I was taking a history class in high school. Last year, I went to my roommate’s room and he showed me Zeng Guofan’s 40-character face reading. If you don’t understand calligraphy, ask me to look it up online. As I looked it up, I discovered that Zeng Guofan was really not a simple person. Basically, those familiar important ministers of the late Qing Dynasty were promoted by Zeng Guofan. Many celebrities after Zeng Guofan have read this family letter. In the 2019 re-examination for the Master of Translation and Interpretation at Lanzhou University, candidates were asked to translate parts of "Letters from the Family of Zeng Guofan".

Text:

After reading Zeng Guofan’s family letter, he told me that I should take my time when doing things. I can’t work tirelessly from beginning to end, change my mind when I see something new, do this, think about that, sit on a mountain, and look at that. Mountains, people have no permanence, and achieve nothing in their lives.

Regarding Zeng Guofan’s character traits, perhaps what impressed me the most was that he was very "Baman". This word comes from the Hunan dialect, and it is perfect to describe Zeng Guofan, who was born in Hunan. The meaning of "Baman": "Ba" means to stick or to be immobile. This word refers to stubbornness and inflexibility, and it often has a derogatory connotation in the context of Hunan dialect usage, such as "doing things without thinking". Baman". However, in some specific contexts, "Baman" can also refer to doing things hard, or being persistent, adventurous and hardworking. This word is recognized as the most accurate word to describe the character or Hunan temperament of modern Hunan people. Hunan people give people the impression of being very "barbarian" and daring to act.

Zeng Guofan's tactical style of "building a stronghold and fighting a dull war" is a symbol of bringing the "Baman" quality of the Hunan people to the extreme. The Hunan Army was like a vine wrapped around the edge of a cliff in a mountain stream in Hunan, clinging to the Taiping Army and slowly exhausting the Taiping Army's strength.

At the same time, Zeng Guofan also developed a strategy for the Hunan Army to deal with the Taiping Army based on the characteristics of the Taiping Army's ability to fight mobile warfare. In his own words, it was called "Fortify the stronghold and fight dull wars." That is, Use trench warfare against the Taiping Army's mobile warfare. When encountering the Taiping Army, the Hunan Army tried its best not to engage in head-on confrontation, but immediately began to dig trenches, using fortifications and trenches to disrupt the Taiping Army's mobile and flexible tactics.

However, these qualities were all acquired by Zeng Guofan after his middle age. When he was young, Zeng Guofan was not tactful in his dealings, but had the ideal concept of a scholar. Zeng Guofan has been deeply influenced by Confucianism since he was a child, and he has the lofty ideal of governing the country and bringing peace to the world. Therefore, since he entered officialdom, he has set high political goals for himself and must practice the political ideals taught to him by Confucianism. This is what makes Zeng Guofan different. Others read books about sages just to gain fame and get promoted and make a fortune. As for the political ideals promoted by Confucianism that civil servants do not love money, generals are not afraid of death, monarchs and ministers are united, and create a prosperous age, not many people actually practice it, but Zeng Guofan did it. But the late Qing Dynasty was, after all, the late Qing Dynasty. The imperial machinery was about to collapse. Officials at all levels also had the idea of ????getting a little bit. Everything focused on retaining their official positions rather than fulfilling their due responsibilities. Therefore, it was difficult to obtain local support. Heavy.

In order to gain local support, Zeng Guofan frequently wrote letters of impeachment and forced the emperor to remove his opponents from office. This aroused dissatisfaction among officials in Hunan and Jiangxi, and once made it impossible for Zeng Guofan to gain a foothold in these two provinces. However, he also did something even more egregious. In 1857, Zeng Guofan's father passed away, and as usual he went to Dingyou to guard the system. At that time, Emperor Xianfeng of the Manchu Qing Dynasty initially wanted to retain Zeng Guofan, but unexpectedly, he actually wanted to use this to blackmail the emperor and ask Xianfeng to give him the power of governor and become the top leader in the Huguang or Jianghuai areas. He even stated that if your emperor does not give the governor power, then I, Zeng Guofan, will quit. Emperor Xianfeng originally disliked Zeng Guofan's style of doing things. As soon as this incident came out, the emperor decided to take back Zeng Guofan's military power and let him return to his hometown to observe filial piety. Judging from the situation at the time, Zeng Guofan was unlikely to regain military power even if he came back, so his political career was basically ruined.

After Zeng Guofan returned home, he carefully studied "Laozi", "Zhuangzi" and "Huayan Sutra", and truly understood what Laozi said: "The most soft in the world is the strongest in the world." People with overly strong personalities often cannot withstand external setbacks because they have too high expectations of themselves and lose the original flexibility of human nature, so failure can easily break their will. On the contrary, those who seem to have a weak character and can do things based on reality can actually seize opportunities in social trends and achieve great things.

As Zeng Guofan deepened his reflection, he gradually understood that politicians must be humble and rational in their dealings, and should use the bureaucracy as a tool to realize political ideals, rather than always thinking about resisting and destroying the system. . In addition, the most basic operating mechanism in officialdom should be interests. Interests are the broadest basis for cooperation between people. Because interests can be negotiated, divided, and exchanged, politicians must learn to use interests to absorb more Allies serve themselves.

This idea caused many people to talk about Zeng Guofan's corruption. Let’s not talk about the reasons. I was also curious before about why corruption was so serious in the late Qing Dynasty. To what extent was it serious, let me give you an example. After the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ended, the imperial court ordered Zeng Guofan to keep an account of the military expenditures spent by the Hunan Army, and reconcile the accounts with the Ministry of Accounts. Officials from the Ministry of Accounts directly marked the price, and 1.3% of the total military expenditures must be taken out. As a benefit fee, the account can be written off smoothly.

The Hunan Army spent nearly 30 million taels of military expenditure, which meant that officials from the Ministry of Revenue planned to extract 400,000 taels of silver from Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan asked people to deal with it, and after some bargaining, officials from the Ministry of Revenue agreed to reduce the benefit fee to 80,000 taels of silver.

Such blatant corruption is not an accidental phenomenon. According to the historical data left today, most Beijing officials cannot sustain their lives with their normal income. On the one hand, this is because in order to maintain their dignity, officials spend more on food, clothing, housing and transportation than ordinary people. On the other hand, it was because the Qing Dynasty implemented the "thin salary system" and the wages paid to officials were indeed too low. When Zeng Guofan was 30 years old, his salary income was nearly 130 taels, but his expenses were as high as 605 taels. After one year as an official, he had a deficit of 475 taels. Therefore, most officials will choose corruption. In the final analysis, the salary is too low.

But Zeng Guofan took corruption and bribes not to live a prosperous life, but because he relied on political interests to deal with others in the officialdom. He had to accept the existing unspoken rules of officialdom, but these gray incomes were by no means the purpose of his officialdom, but his means of doing things. We can say that when Zeng Guofan faced himself, he was a noble saint with a clear conscience; and when he faced the entire officialdom, he was a smooth and pragmatic political doer.

Here are some excerpts of sentences that impressed me deeply:

1. Reading the Bible is based on the study of meaning and theory, and the last thing is textual research. There is a formula for reading the Bible: If a sentence does not make sense, don’t read it. If it doesn't make sense today, read it again tomorrow; if it doesn't make sense this year, read it again next year: this is called patience. The best way to read history is to put yourself in someone else's place. Every time I look at a place, I laugh and chat with the people at that time. It is not necessary that everyone can remember, but remembering one person is like picking up that person; it is not necessary that everyone can remember, but remembering things is like being close to them. Classics are used to understand the truth, and history is used to examine things. Without these two, there is no learning at all.

2. Everyone must have a teacher. If there is no teacher, then the heart of fear will not arise, that is, Jun Ding will be his teacher. In addition, it is worth choosing friends carefully. Changli Day: "If you don't give me good things, I will force them to follow you; if they are not good things, I will be evil, but I will force you to reject them. The success or failure of your life depends on whether your friends are virtuous or not, so don't be careless.

3. The palace examination is held in the Zhengda Guangming Hall of the Old Summer Palace, about once every six years. It enters the hall at the tenth day of the lunar month and appears at the You hour.

4. Whether it is a teacher or a friend, it is appropriate to always be in awe and not to be regarded as an equal. If you become arrogant and obscene, you will no longer be able to benefit from it.

5. No matter what book you read, you must read it from beginning to end; otherwise, you will flip through a few pages and excerpt a few articles. , but the overall essence of this book is unclear.

6. We can only rely on improving morality and cultivating our careers. To advance in virtue, we must be filial, brotherly, benevolent and righteous; to cultivate our careers, we must write poems and essays. . The two are decided by me. If I have a ruler, I will have a ruler. If I have an inch, I will have an inch.

7. If I see a friend who complains too much, I will be more restrained in the future. "Sai", such as Wu Tan Tai and Ling Huo Zhou, refers to the invincible wind. If you blame heaven for no reason, heaven will not allow it; if you blame others for no reason, people will not accept it.

8. When a person does something, he must concentrate on it and be unremitting from beginning to end. He may do this or think that way, sit on this mountain and look at that mountain. Without perseverance, he will achieve nothing in his life. I have never made any mistakes in my life. Heng's shortcomings are really harmful.

9. The word "prevent arrogance" has the first meaning of "not to laugh at people lightly" and the word "prevention of laziness" has the first meaning of "not to feast".