Zeng Guofan once said to his son Zeng Jize in his old age, "I have nothing to be proud of in my life, if there is one thing I can be proud of, that is, I will not study for a day in my life." ”Zeng Guofan fought all his life, fighting in the south and the north, but he had to find time to read and make notes every day, and he was a real reader, which was also his first position for himself: Confucian.
Plough and read the family motto of the heirloom
So, why does Zeng Guofan love reading so much?There's a story of homeschooling.
Zeng Guofan's family is not a scholarly family for generations, and when Zeng Guofan's grandfather Zeng Yuping was born, he was still a farmer.
Although Zeng Yuping was born as a farmer, he did not like farming, and he was illiterate, relying on his solid family background, he did not do his job all day long, and often mixed with some gentlemen, often rode a good horse, wore bright clothes, and ran to Xiangtan City to wander around.
One day, when he was eating and drinking with a group of prodigal children in a restaurant, he walked past an old man's house, only to see the old man pointing at him from a distance and saying to the person next to him: "This Zeng family is a loser, so frivolous and shallow, lazy and lazy, this family will be defeated sooner or later, he will be defeated!"After Zeng Yuping heard others comment on himself like this, he was like a man, so he didn't think of him like this. He came to his senses, sold his horse to the market on the spot, and walked home.
From that day on, Zeng Yuping vowed to work hard, get up early every morning to work in the fields, cultivate the fields, improve agricultural efficiency, and slowly make the Zeng family richer, and he also changed from a prodigal son to a respected squire among the neighbors.
When he became financially wealthy, he did not want his offspring to be as illiterate as he was, so he decided to send his son to school. Specially spent ** hired a famous private school teacher from Changsha to conduct one-on-one tutoring for the eldest son Zeng Linshu, who has reached school age. The most important thing is that he began to establish the Zeng family's family motto: ploughing and reading heirlooms.
In order to create a good reading environment, Zeng Yuping set an example, he went to get close to the readers, banqueted the literati, and the reading atmosphere of the Zeng family gradually became stronger, but his son Zeng Linshu had ordinary talent, and he didn't get into the show until he was 43 years old. However, his eldest grandson Zeng Guofan was very competitive, and at the age of 23, he was selected for Xiucai, at the age of 24, and at the age of 28, he was promoted to the Jinshi, and entered the Hanlin Academy, and since then he has entered the official career.
On Zeng Guofan's way of studying and entering the office, his father Zeng Linshu played a very important role. Zeng Guofan failed the first time he entered the Beijing entrance examination, and after he failed, he was not in a hurry to go home, but set off from Beijing, went to the southeast, traveled to Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and when he had no money halfway, he went to Jiangsu to find his father's fellow villagers to borrow money and go home. Unexpectedly, this uncle gave one hundred taels ** to Zeng Guofan, how much is this one hundred taels?At that time, the annual salary of the magistrate was only forty taels, which shows that this is a huge amount of money. On the way home, Zeng Guofan quickly spent the hundred taels.
Because he likes to visit bookstores, one of which values a twenty-three history, and it takes a hundred taels. Zeng Guofan didn't know what it was like to be poor, so he bought it happily.
After buying it, I walked to the door and remembered that I not only failed the exam, but also owed a huge debt. I was about to face my father, and I was very nervous.
Unexpectedly, on the contrary, Zeng Guofan's words made Zeng Guofan determined to study well, and developed a lifelong Xi of reading. So what did Zeng Linshu say?
Zeng Linshu did not scold Zeng Guofan, saying: "It is a good thing to borrow money to buy books, and I am happy to repay your debts for you, but I hope you will not forget the original intention of buying books and study them carefully, so that the borrowed money will not be in vain." ”
Although Zeng Linshu can't take the exam to go to school by himself, he is a parent with deep cultivation. There are three implicit meanings in this sentence:
At the first level, he didn't mention the matter of the entrance examination, because he knew that Zeng Guofan had suffered major setbacks and failures in his life because of the failure of the exam, and he didn't mention this matter, and suddenly crossed out the heaviest psychological burden in his son's heart.
Second, he did not complain that his son did not know the cost of firewood and rice, although it was very difficult for a farming family to repay this debt. Most importantly, he said that "borrowing money to buy books is a good thing". This was very shocking to the heart of the young Zeng Guofan at that time.
The third layer further enlightens the purpose and original intention of his book purchase. Buying books is secondary, what is important for what?For the sake of studying, let the knowledge be internalized into the wealth of the heart.
After Zeng Linshu said this, he left, leaving Zeng Guofan, who was deeply shocked. It was also from this time that Zeng Guofan was determined to study the 23rd History, become a true Confucian, and develop a lifelong Xi of reading.
Why Read?
So, why read?Zeng Guofan wrote in a letter to his younger brother: "There are only two things for my generation to study: one is to enter the virtue, and to emphasize the way of sincerity and cultivation, so as to be born without resentment;One is the practice of memorizing words and chapters in order to defend himself. ”
Zeng Guofan believes that reading has two key roles in life, one is to establish a correct outlook on life and values. The first is to form their own professional expertise, which can be based on society. Reading can benefit us in being a person and doing things.
The outlook on life and values build our spiritual world, and a person with a rich and powerful spiritual world can be firm and determined, not wavering, and not afraid when facing the outside world. Go in the direction of your goals. Zeng Guofan once said: "People's temperament, because of their nature, is difficult to change, but only reading can change temperament." ”
Secondly, Zeng Guofan himself came out of the imperial examination, but he did not limit the use of reading to the imperial examination as an official, his son Zeng Jize took a imperial examination when he was young and then made up for it, he told his father that he did not like to study for the imperial examination, and did not want to take the road of studying and excelling. This statement was appalling at the time.
When everyone thought Zeng Jize was crazy, Zeng Guofan unexpectedly supported Zeng Jize with him. He asked Zeng Jize: Then what do you want to learn?Zeng Jize said that he likes Western culture and science, and he wants to learn English. Zeng Guofan supported him. Later, the second son Zeng Jihong also did not like the imperial examination and liked mathematics, but Zeng Guofan still strongly supported it.
In Zeng Guofan's view, the purpose of studying is not to take the exam to become an official, but to cultivate one's own professional expertise and do things that are beneficial to the country and society, and being an official is only one of the ways.
Three ways to read
Zeng Guofan's life is a life of boating in the sea of books, in which he has obtained spiritual cultivation, temperament change and pillars of self-reliance, and is the beneficiary of reading. So, how did he get to read?
Zeng Guofan believes that there are three ways to read:
1. Read the classics. The classics are the ideas and wisdom of predecessors that have been tested by time and practice.
2. Don't read a new book. Be intensive. Wang Guowei said: "The poet's life in the universe must be in and out of it. It is within it, so it can be written. Out of the ordinary, so it can be observed. In it, it is alive. Out of the ordinary, so there is elegance. ”Reading should be able to read. If you don't read it, all you see is knowledge.
Zeng Guofan taught his children and grandchildren: "If you read, you don't have to work hard to memorize. Just take it calmly, read a few articles today, read a few articles tomorrow, and it will be beneficial for a long time. ”Reading calmly is not just about flipping through books, but also about developing the habit of reading Xi process: making notes and taking notes. When Zeng Guofan was reading the 23rd History, whenever he had any feelings, thoughts, doubts and thoughts, he would immediately write them down.
3. Cultivate personal interest and direction in reading. Zeng Jize likes Western studies and English, Zeng Guofan supported him, and in order to guide him, he also began to read books in this area. At the same time, Zeng Guofan's mansion has recruited many talents, so that as long as there is talent in this area, Zeng Guofan can invite him to teach his children. This also inspires us today, although there are no customers, but we must also be good at discovering the strengths and specialties of our relatives and friends, so that when we need help, we can find the corresponding experts and teachers to consult.
Zeng Guofan laughed and said that he was a bookworm, because he had been reading all year round, and he was blind in his old age. It is precisely because of his love of reading that Zeng Guofan has changed his fate and quality, transforming from a stupid child to a perfect person through the ages.