Zeng Guofan, a politician and military strategist in the late Qing Dynasty, became an important figure in Chinese history with his outstanding talent and outstanding political achievements. His ancestors had always been mainly engaged in agriculture until the fate of his grandfather Zeng Yuping's family changed dramatically.
Accumulated to Zeng Guofan's generation, under his management, a family full of brilliant achievements of 240 children and grandchildren, none of whom were defeated.
However, the glory of this famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty was not achieved overnight, and his success contained the scheming of hard work and good family. His diligence, wisdom and scheming in governing his family have become a model for future generations to learn from Xi.
The origins of the Zeng Guofan family can be traced back to the Hanmen of Hunan. Six hundred years ago, my ancestors lived in poverty as farmers. However, in the centuries-long history of the Zeng family, there have not been many scholars.
The turning point of fate was a conversation between his grandfather and an old man. When Zeng Yuping was young, he hung around all day long, wandering around with nothing to do all day long, and some people in the village looked down on him. One day, an old man in the village met Zeng Yuping and snorted: "Idle loser." ”
A young man can hear this, but he can't treat him as an old man. So, from then on, he set his heart on serving the farmland, running the family, and asking his children and grandchildren to study. It was this decision that turned the fortunes of the entire family around.
When it came to Zeng Guofan's father, Zeng Linshu's generation, he began to participate in the imperial examination in the township when he was a teenager, but he was repeatedly defeated, and he took the exam sixteen times, and he did not pass the examination until he was in his 40s.
This kind of experience has long been given up on others, after all, reading is a big expense, and ordinary families can afford such consumption. Fortunately, Zeng Yuping has laid a good foundation for the family's economy, and his descendants are also competitive, so he is quite solid in terms of money.
Zeng Linshu has a good mentality and is not discouraged by this, he firmly believes that even if he fails to be admitted to Xiucai in his life, his son can still continue to pursue, and his children and grandchildren can relay forward. Zeng Guofan grew up in such a family background.
From the age of 5, he began to learn Xi read and write, much earlier than his peers. This was a fairly precocious form of education in the Qing Dynasty, and children from ordinary families did not begin to receive enlightenment education until the age of 8. However, Tsang's academic journey was not smooth.
In the imperial examinations, he was repeatedly defeated, but he never gave up. Zeng Guofan was admitted to Xiucai at the age of 14, and although his grades were second-to-last, this victory paved the way for his studies.
Zeng Guofan studied in his hometown until he was 28 years old, and spent all the belongings that his family had saved. Eventually, he was appointed by Emperor Daoguang as a scholar in the second entrance examination, and began his career as an officialdom in the imperial court.
Zeng Guofan has always maintained an upright personality in the officialdom, which makes him hit walls everywhere. He dared to criticize people he didn't like, even the emperor dared to contradict them. Such a character is both an advantage and a disadvantage in officialdom.
In 1850, Emperor Daoguang died and was succeeded by Emperor Xianfeng. Due to lack of experience, Emperor Xianfeng and Zeng Guofan had major differences in the handling of government affairs. For the sake of national stability, Zeng Guofan did not hesitate to criticize Emperor Xianfeng's measures in public. This move caused Emperor Xianfeng to dislike Zeng Guofan, and he was ostracized in the imperial court.
In 1852, the peasant uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom became more and more ferocious, affecting Hunan. Zeng Guofan's opportunity has come.
In 1853, the Qing Dynasty was in urgent need of strength, and Zeng Guofan took this opportunity to get the approval of the Qing Dynasty, relying on the intricate interpersonal relationships between master and apprentice, relatives and friends, and formed a local regiment in Hunan, named Xiangyong. The leadership of the Hunan army was mainly composed of scholars from the family of cultivation and study.
However, Zeng Guofan also encountered many problems in the process of establishing the Hunan army, one of which was that the salary required by the Xiangyong was higher than that of the green battalion soldiers, and the purchase of foreign artillery and ordnance also required a large amount of money. However, Xianfeng did not expect much from Tseng, and was even reluctant to provide adequate military salaries, seeing them as a means of checks and balances.
So Zeng Guofan apportioned the squire, but even this income was far from enough. As a result, Zeng Guofan skillfully asked Emperor Xianfeng for thousands of "prison student" diplomas and blank appointment letters for fictitious official positions, and through these fictitious titles, he raised the funds needed to build the army.
Through this method, Zeng Guofan succeeded in forming a large Hunan army in 1854, with a number of as high as 170,000, and armed with hundreds of foreign cannons.
In the construction of the Hunan army, Zeng Guofan was strict in discipline, divided Xiangyong into ten battalions, and moved the military training site from Changsha to Xiangtan, Zeng Guofan was well aware of the corruption and laziness of the Qing Dynasty army, he supervised and trained the Hunan army in Hunan, implemented strict military training, and made the Hunan army an elite guerrilla force.
In 1854, the Taiping army attacked Xiangtan, and the Hunan army, under the command of Zeng Guofan, fought against the Taiping army of 60,000 with 10,000 people, and achieved a brilliant record of ten battles and ten victories. The Battle of Xiangtan became the only victory of the Qing Dynasty in the three years of the Taiping Rebellion.
Zeng Guofan showed outstanding military talent and strategic vision in the struggle, but his tough personality was also doubted by some figures within the imperial court. Peng Yunzhang, the Minister of Military Aircraft, and others advised Emperor Xianfeng at the court, believing that Zeng Guofan might take advantage of the situation to rebel, which made Zeng Guofan return to his hometown to guard filial piety for a time.
However, the threat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not dissipate quickly. Zeng Guofan was once again called back, and he changed his past rigidity and self-serving, showing a more slick diplomatic skill. The Taiping Rebellion was gradually put down, and Zeng Guofan finally gained the trust of Emperor Xianfeng and became the governor of Liangjiang because of his outstanding performance in the training and battle of the Hunan army.
Tsang's success is not only reflected in his military strategy, but also in his philosophy of governing the family and family management. His governing maxims, such as:"People lose because of laziness, everything fails because of pride, and family failures are all due to luxury", which became the family motto of his life.
Zeng Guofan recorded his family style and family motto in detail in his family letter. This mansion was built in 1865, and according to the wisdom of the I Ching, the architecture of Fu Hou Tang adopts a feng shui layout with a symmetrical central axis and sitting south and facing north.
And his requirements for life are not luxurious, but focus on practicality and simplicity. This simple way of life is not a temporary formalism, but an attitude to life that is deeply rooted in Tsang's character and family values.
Zeng Guofan's house was not overly decorated. On the contrary, he pays more attention to the practicality and functionality of the house. In Zeng Guofan's eyes, the house is not only a place to live, but also a space to think about life and accumulate wisdom.
This concept is not only used on himself, Zeng Guofan is also extremely strict with his family. He advocated being hands-on and asked his family to do all the household chores themselves. This includes not only the trivial matters of daily life, but also the important matters of the family.
This insistence on hands-on family members fosters the quality of self-reliance and self-improvement among family members. Tsang did not agree with hiring servants to solve problems, but advocated the joint efforts of family members to maintain family harmony.
This simple and diligent attitude to life is not only Zeng Guofan's personal choice, but also has become the code of conduct for his family's descendants. Through his own practical actions, Zeng Guofan has set a model of honest, simple and conscientious family for his family. The inheritance of this value not only attracted attention at the time, but also continued among future generations and became a part of the culture of the Zeng family.
In Tsang's philosophy, he expects future generations to inherit the fine traditions of the Tsang family. This is not simply the pursuit of material wealth, but pays more attention to self-cultivation and emphasizes advocating hard work and prosperity. Zeng Guofan knows that the prosperity of a family depends not only on external material accumulation, but also on the moral cultivation and diligent spirit of family members.
The inheritance of this philosophy has allowed Tsang's family to show remarkable continuity and stability over eight generations. What is remarkable is that there is not a single loser among the descendants of Zeng Guofan, which is not accidental, but the profound influence of Zeng's motto. There are a considerable number of family members who have achieved outstanding achievements and become leaders in various fields.
Through his own example and the precise guidance of family management, Zeng Guofan has provided a family model full of wisdom and traditional values for future generations. This model was not only unique in the feudal society of the time, but also continued to this day after the death of Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan's maxim of governing the family has become a model for many people to learn from Xi, and has conveyed the profound influence of family style to the society.
Tsang's life journey is like a magnificent epic, he not only established outstanding achievements in the political arena, but also created a clean and honest family style in the family.
Zeng Guofan's success tells us that as long as we work hard, even an ordinary person can counterattack and become a successful person. His legendary life has inspired generations of Chinese and become a role model for Confucian generals.