The intelligence of a person's mind is often hereditary, such as Zeng Guofan, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, who was known for being "stupid", so his stupidity was inherited from his father Zeng Linshu.
Zeng Linshu has loved learning since he was a child, but his mind is too stupid, and after taking the township examination 17 times, he barely took the exam until he was 47 years old.
And Zeng Guofan, who also took the exam seven times in a row, took the penultimate result, and was admitted to Xiucai, although he was much stronger than Zeng Linshu, but compared with people like Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan did seem stupid.
However, Zeng Guofan, who is known for his "stupidity", is the first of the four famous ministers of Zhongxing in the late Qing Dynasty, and is in front of Zuo Zongtang, who is known for his talent, although Zeng Guofan himself admits that "Yu is reckless", but he has proved to the world that people who are willing to do "stupid kung fu" are really smart people!
According to the traditional concept of the Chinese, people are divided into four types, one is the great sage like Confucius, who is always prophetic and has the perfect talent of knowing without learning and combining knowledge and action; The second type can be called a sage, who learns and knows, knows and acts, and has a strong ability to learn;
The third type is the ordinary people of all living beings, who realize it later, know and act differently, and only by making double efforts can they succeed and live the life they want; The last one is that they have neither the talent nor the ability to learn, and they do not even have the will to learn to change, so they can only live in the world all their lives.
Then Zeng Guofan, like most of us, belongs to the third type, with ordinary qualifications and even looks a little stupid. For example, when reading, Zeng Guofan often had to stay up all night memorizing texts that others could quickly memorize.
One night, the thief hid in the house and took advantage of Zeng Guofan's rest to steal, but he didn't expect Zeng Guofan to read the same text all night, and he didn't memorize it until almost dawn, the thief couldn't bear it, jumped out and first memorized the text from beginning to end, and then shouted at Zeng Guofan: Even I am not as good, what book do you read if you are stupid like this?
However, Zeng Guofan did not give up because of this, but worked harder, because he knew that he was not smart and talented, so in learning, he relied on the stupidest method, if he didn't understand this sentence, he wouldn't read the next sentence, and if he didn't complete the day's tasks, he would never rest.
Later, those classmates who were smarter than him stopped at showing off their talents, but Zeng Guofan successfully ascended to the top and became the protégé of Mu Zhang'a, the Minister of Military Aircraft.
In fact, the so-called smart is often just a little smart, for example, for the same thing, smart people may bypass difficulties and use some shortcuts to complete it quickly, while stupid people will choose to complete it step by step. Although the shortcut is fast, the foundation is not solid, and although it is slow, it is solid and does not leave any drawbacks, so Zeng Guofan said: The most clumsy in the world can win the most clever in the world!
Zeng Guofan is known for being "stupid", but his youngest son Zeng Jihong is very smart, such as practicing calligraphy, Zeng Jihong can quickly write decently, but he is always in a hurry for quick success, and he wants to give up after writing each font for ten days and a half, but he has not mastered any calligraphy.
Zeng Guofan then taught his son, saying: Everything is done with hard work, and you can't be too effective! He said that the post should be slow, the more he practiced, the more clumsy he became, and it seemed that the more he wrote, the uglier he became, at this time the interest in writing would be lower and lower, and he felt like he was trapped, but as long as he persevered and survived this stage, there would be a breakthrough. To practice calligraphy, we must "go into trouble again, and then work hard" to have "a prosperous and diligent day", and all things in the world will have "extremely difficult times, and those who can get through are heroes"!
When smart people encounter obstacles, they often find a way to overcome this difficulty, while the so-called stupid people will not dodge or avoid until the obstacles are overcome before moving forward, which is what Zeng Guofan said "sleepy knowledge and reluctance".
Practicing calligraphy is like this, fighting, it is also like this, Zeng Guofan fought wars are "dumb battles", he never pursues tricks, but steady and steady, and does not fight unprepared battles in his life, nor does he fight uncertain battles, but the Hunan army he led is invincible and invincible, which is the miracle created by "stupid kung fu".
In this era when everything is about efficiency, more and more people just want to take shortcuts, and pursue too many skills and methods with immediate results, which has created a lot of short-lived appearances of success, which has to be said to be the greatest sorrow of this era.