We often envy people who are quick-witted and quick to react, but Zeng Guofan, a minister of the late Qing Dynasty, who is known as a half-saint, has a different view. He believed: "Our generation of scholars is about to lose clumsiness, that is, we should be content with clumsiness, and make up for it with diligence, and make up for it with prudence, and we should not be clever and wise, and the mistakes are even worse." β
Zeng Guofan was born in a peasant family, with mediocre qualifications, and after eleven imperial examinations, he finally ascended to the Jinshi Hall. He knows very well that "people are impermanent, and they will achieve nothing in their lives".
When preparing for the establishment of the Hunan Army, he was willing to use people who looked clumsy and had a solid heart in selecting talents. He said: "The military camp should use more simple and less knowledgeable people, and the atmosphere will be easy to mellow." "If the so-called atmosphere is positive, the morale is positive. When he reviewed the reasons for the success of the Hunan army in "Xiangxiang Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall", he said: "The way of a gentleman is nothing more than loyalty to the world. He believes that the reason why the world is in chaos is because there are too many smart people who cheat each other. The Hunan army took the initiative to attack the city, and it also used the most stupid method, like a giant python stalking people, to trap the city alive with one trench after another. This seemingly clumsy method often required a long period of persistence and non-stop trenching efforts for a year or two, and by the end of the war, the landscape outside the city walls had been completely changed by the Hunan army.
Zeng Guofan treats people and things, and always adheres to honesty and clumsiness. He demanded that he "not talk big, not seek fame", and do things "willing to be taken advantage of by others, and never willing to take advantage of others".
He thinks: Even if people come with cunning, I still respond to it with implication, and respond to it with sincerity and foolishness, and after a long time, people's intentions will also disappear. If you are hooked and far from each other, there is no time for revenge. Mortals come with hypocrisy, I go to it with sincerity, and over time, the hypocrites also tend to be sincere. He believed that even if others were dealing with him with cunning, he should still respond with a strong and honest attitude. This attitude ultimately dispels the hostility of the other person and makes the other person more sincere.Zeng Guofan's way of dealing with the world has won him wide respect throughout his life. Even in the face of Zuo Zongtang's repeated sarcasm and blows, he always treated each other with sincerity and regardless of previous suspicions. For his ** Li Hongzhang, although he often plays tricks and is selfish, Zeng Guofan has always been tolerant and supportive. This kind of sincere way of influencing Zeng Guofan made many friends in his life, and his strategists were like clouds, and fierce generals were like rain, and finally achieved the brilliant victory of the "Battle of Hongyang".
In the "Preface to Sending Guo Yun Xiannan to Return", Zeng Guofan described the truth of success as follows: "The gentleman is very dull, the way is very circuitous, the virtue is not reluctant, the industry is not famous, the difficult and wrong move, the delay and the backward, the baht and the accumulation, the inch and the tired, and the mature, then the strong man is also a disciple." βγIt means that the gentleman does not take shortcuts, does not try to be famous, although the process is difficult and tortuous, but as long as he perseveres, the gentleman will succeed later, and once successful, it will be a great success.
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