Second, pragmatic, has been committed to useful learning. What does this mean? Once a person has the habit of reading, he will continue to learn. So these people who lead troops to fight will use their brains. Wherever he goes, he will survey the terrain, understand the local conditions and customs, and see where the enemy's weaknesses are. He is much smarter than the average Beowulf. Because he has been studying all his life, his brain is very clever. This is the second reason.
Third, because of the profound neo-Confucianism, I can be indifferent in the extremely chaotic battlefield. So keep calm and analyze the situation accurately. Do you remember why Wang Yangming was different from the other party when fighting? Wang Ning, those thieves, chaos. Panic as soon as you encounter a situation. I began to think about many personal interests, whether to protect Nanchang or Ji' an. This selfishness has been exposed a lot.
But if a person, life and death, finance, children and relatives are ignored. The difference between one thought and another is only conscience, only knowing what to do at this moment. What is the most important thing to do? This man has become clever. That's what we said, why a person is wise and not so much self-interest traction.
So Zeng Guofan chose these people, nothing else. Luo Zenan once told others why you always win wars, and Luo Zenan replied with a particularly classic sentence, saying "Nothing else" and "Reading University". I am familiar with "university", and it is enough to know this sentence. It's called "Zhi Zhi will decide later, then he can be quiet, then he can be quiet, then he can be safe, then he can think about it, and then he can get it". It's all the art of war, just these words. This is familiar to all scholars. You just need to remember this. He saw the war on the battlefield, and the people around him fell, all the same. What should I do if I fight with peace of mind? This is one of the advantages of choosing scholars.
In addition, Luo Zenan preached at dusk. At that time, many people passed by Xiang's military camp and heard Lang Lang's reading sound coming from inside. It is the children in these military camps who, after being elected by them, study during the day, fight during the day and teach them to read at night. This is the advantage of these literati leading troops to fight, and he also teaches by the way. In this way, let these people become more idealistic and let people know more about why they are fighting.
Later, when Luo Zenan attacked Wuhan, he was hit on the forehead by shrapnel, seriously injured and died at the gates of Wuchang. When he was dying, Hu Linyi rushed to the scene. Hu Linyi is also a general. Hu Linyi rushed to the scene and saw him for the last time. He said that Luo Zenan was "panting and sweating" at this time, but he was still talking about private affairs. He only talked about military and political studies, and especially told Hu Linyi that "you can gain a foothold in an emergency and learn something useful". I hope you can remember this sentence. It is useful to stand firm in an emergency, that is, we have read so many books, whether they are useful, whether we can stand firm in critical times and whether we can calmly analyze them. Then, Hu Linyi had to sigh, "His academic mind deserves to be called Confucianism". This is a particularly good representative of Zeng Guofan's selection of scholars.
Then, Zeng Guofan's selection criteria, four, are called "morality, bureaucracy, multi-organization, and less talk." With honesty, this person has a bottom line and a life norm that he cherishes; What is bureaucracy without bureaucracy? Bureaucracy is like putting on airs, and bureaucracy is about ostentation and extravagance; Multi-organized, as long as you let him do a small thing, you will know whether he is organized and whether this person's way of thinking is logical; Then, finally, talk less and don't brag. Zeng Guofan doesn't want anyone to brag. He is very happy. These are the four criteria for selecting scholars.
"Leading Shan Nong" and leading Shan Nong to war. Because Shan Nong is not as selfish as those soldiers, he just wants to live and defend his country. Then deal with internal and internal contradictions. Zeng Guofan's principle is called "sincerity". Handle internal relations with sincerity.
Here is a story. When Li Hongzhang first entered Zeng Guofan's door, Li Hongzhang couldn't get up in the morning because he was a little ruffian. Zeng Guofan's military camp is very demanding. Every morning, when all the generals have dinner together, they will come and have breakfast with Zeng Guofan. Breakfast is early. Then Li Hongzhang couldn't get up. If he can't get up, tell someone else. You tell Ceng Shuai that he has a headache and I have a headache, so I can't go. What about Zeng Guofan? Let the messenger go back and say that we are waiting for you. If you don't come to breakfast, you won't open it and you won't eat.
Li Hongzhang wouldn't listen, so he went to eat in a hurry. The atmosphere of eating at ordinary times is completely different, and no one speaks. That is, everyone didn't speak, and the atmosphere was awkward, so they finished their meal quietly. After dinner, Zeng Guofan told Li Hongzhang, "Shao Quanlin", and Li Hongzhang's word is Shao Quanlin. He said, "Shao Quanlin, there is only one word here." As far as my place is concerned, I admire the word honesty. So if you want to say you can't get up, just tell me you can't get up. Don't lie to me about your headache. Just this time, Li Hongzhang was taught. After Li Hongzhang got up early, he followed him for breakfast. Therefore, he does not lie, do not detour, and speak straight, which is called "sincerity" in dealing with internal relations.
So when it comes to this kind of stupid thing, the most typical thing is that we are now on the Internet, and the most cited thing is to fight hard and fight in secret. Zeng Guofan's stubborn village is peaceful and indifferent, which is really remarkable. Is that we think it's horrible. What is Xie Yingzhai? When the Xiang army marched, they didn't have to rush away every day. They can walk for four hours at most. Four hours later, they came to a place. How much time is left?
Dig a ditch. Dig a ditch, how big a ditch to dig. After camping every day, no matter how tired the army is, it is necessary to surround the camp and dig two deep ditches first. Build two more high walls along this ditch to protect yourself. There are clear requirements for the width and depth of trenches and the height and thickness of camp walls. "The way to make a ditch is to reset the outside and the inside. Six feet wide outside, eight feet deep, and half inside. " That is, the outer ditch is two meters wide and three meters deep, and the size of the inner one is halved. "If the wall is like a city, it is seven feet high", and seven feet is more than two meters high. Then, such a big project will take about four or five hours to complete. You rest at ease, divide the troops into three shifts every night and take turns to stand guard. This is called "swing grass".
Why did Zeng Guofan make such a move? Because at the beginning of the war, they were inexperienced. They rested on the plain and were ambushed by Taiping rebels. You know that Taiping Army has studied the Three Kingdoms, so Taiping Army especially likes to sneak attack at night and set things on fire. After a big loss, Zeng Guofan almost died several times in the war, and even wanted to jump into the river to commit suicide, because he could not beat others. Later, Zeng Guofan slowly understood that it is very important to think of a place, first of all, don't say that you can win, and first of all, don't lose. You see, so is our business. Don't talk about doing business. You can go public in three years, and you can live for three years first. Make sure you can survive without financing. This is the so-called "Jehad Village".
So Zeng Guofan's way is to dig trenches first anyway. I can't run after digging, so I'll walk for another four hours tomorrow, then go ahead for a while, then dig a ditch and make a wall. Therefore, when Li Hongzhang first arrived in Xiang Army, he felt particularly disappointed, saying that this was not an army, but a migrant workers' organization, which dug all day. All these people dug all day. Then build a wall, build a wall, build a wall. Even Li Hongzhang sometimes feels that he will fight or not. This is the only way to dig the wall.
But you know how terrible it was afterwards. For example, Zeng Guofan came to Wuhan and surrounded it. His method is not simply to surround it. He dug a wall around Wuhan and drew a big circle. The same two deep ditches dug out will surround the whole city of Wuhan like a dragon. This is a good time. I will wait for you to run out of ammunition and food. So Zeng Guofan fought a battle, not for a day or two, not in January or February, but for a year or two. It will take him more than a year or even three years to build a big city. Why? This is the change of subject and object. You see, you are guarding Wuchang City, and now I want to fight Wuchang. You are the subject, I am the object, and I will definitely suffer, so I can't climb up. So you continue to attack the city, as long as you continue to beat you and beat you, you can't get on even if you die. So at this time, you are the host and I am the guest. I can't beat you.
But how can I go from customer to customer? I have surrounded your city with trenches. Well, there are people out there who support me. I can directly collect grain and draft outside. I have money. What's the matter? Can't you get out? As long as you dare to cross this trench, I will become the Lord and you will become the guest. So when the troops inside you want to break through, you become the new Wuchang city. At this time, the relationship between subject and object changed immediately.
Therefore, the main reason why Zeng Guofan was able to make this strategy of "hardening the countryside and beating the staff" was that he was not greedy for small profits, did not seek small profits, and distinguished between subject and object. It's just that many people think I can run faster by sneaking up. I don't want to be so slow and stay in this place all day Zeng Guofan said that it is not necessary. Survival is the most important thing. How do you survive and protect yourself? When you get there, surround them. In the end, the people inside had no food, and all the people had no food. After a few years, where did they get food? Repeated battles and repeated victories, this is how to advance slowly and slowly. So why today, he inspired many enterprises today.
Today, a large number of enterprises are eager to be fast, that is, they hope to become the world's top 500 in 10 years. So now many entrepreneurs come out to shout slogans, and it will take 500 years to give up the top 500. Can you do it slowly and spend more time to make yourself safe? This method of "building a hard camp and fighting a dark war" has great inspiration for our entrepreneurship today. This is the embodiment of Zeng Guofan's "clumsy" and "sincere" characters.
You will find that this man is stupid. He always achieved these achievements in this stupid way. This is where he is completely different from others. Look at Wang Yangming's biography. Wang Yangming never does such a thing. Wang Yangming is all light method. Because Wang Yangming is so smart, he can get things done with one punch. There is no way, those people can't beat him. But Zeng Guofan said I was stupid, I was short, and I couldn't compete with others. So my way is, I am stupid, which is another road to success. All right. Then sum up Zeng Guofan's life.
In addition to the clumsiness, honesty, diligence and perseverance we are talking about now, Zeng Guofan has another strong feature.
Old and persistent. Because Zeng Guofan, in his life, told people around him every day that he was not at war. There is not a day when we are not fighting against the body, the emperor, the bureaucrats around us and the rebels. Every day. Therefore, he often said, "Heroes are those who can make sense." Zeng Guofan's reading has a characteristic. He can't understand this book and can't change it. If he cannot read this book, he must read it. Even if I read this sentence one day, I don't understand it for a long time. I went back to check the information for a long time, just this sentence, and I will read it the next day. He is such a character. He never gives up easily. Is to use force.
He wrote a pair of couplets himself, which was very proud. It was called "Feed a spring and support two poor bones". This man has a lot of backbone. Such a person himself said, "About defeat, you must be either proud or lazy." If you lose a war, you are either arrogant or lazy. If you lose your life, you must be arrogant or lazy. If you fail all your life. Also, either arrogance or laziness, the two must be one. So "eliminate evil through diligence and thrift" means that I have one hundred shortcomings, bad personality and low intelligence. But diligence can eliminate all shortcomings. As long as you are diligent enough, all problems can be solved. "Although you are weak, you should not cherish it too much." He knows he is weak, although weak, but don't cherish it too much.
He himself talked about the five virtues, which Zeng Guofan insisted on all his life. He is diligent in five things: "diligent in body" and diligent in body. "The dangerous road is long, and I will check it out; In difficult situations, you can taste it yourself. " That is, the body should be more active and go on field trips.
"second, the eyes should be diligent." "When you meet a person, you must observe carefully; After receiving the text, you must review it repeatedly. " . Everyone said that Zeng Guofan had An Ice Guide. As for whether Bing Jian was written by Zeng Guofan, it is doubtful now. But Zeng Guofan really loves visiting fortune-teller, that is, when he meets someone, he must study them first and observe them for a long time. Then he said, I think you are suitable for a soldier. If you come here to join the army, you must be a good soldier. Be diligent, give him a document and read it carefully for half a day. Today, many of us get something and forward it. We don't even know what it says. Because you didn't use your mind and eyes.
"Three yue hard-working, easy to abandon, easy to clean up; Things that are easy to forget are recorded in essays. " If you have anything, write it down quickly. If you have something, clean it up quickly. Clean it up.
The fourth one is called Kouqin. "Treat colleagues and persuade each other." When you are a subordinate, you will be disciplined again and again. "It is to communicate and talk with others constantly and seriously. Don't be silent all day.
On the fifth day, be diligent and diligent. "If you are sincere, the stone will open; After hard work, ghosts and miracles have passed. " How diligent is Zeng Guofan? We said that he wrote about 20 million words in his life. I have written so many things in these 33 years, with an average of 600,000 words a year, written with a brush. And the key is that he still has to fight, solve so many problems and fight against diseases. It's hard for you to imagine how diligent this man is.
Writing letters from home, we can see about 1459 letters from home now. Among them, Xianfeng 1 1, that year, he wrote 235 home letters, that is, 235 home letters in 365 days a year. Write to your brothers every night. He didn't write casually, but kept a running account of what he did today. No, he wrote today to share all his thoughts and feelings with his younger brothers. This is the characteristic of Zeng Guofan's daily class. Is to reflect every day.
I suggest that all of us should also learn the habit of giving ourselves some time to reflect before going to bed every day. Know what you did this day, what you did well, what you did badly, and what you did badly for? Why did this happen to me? What should I do next time? When you can meditate on this thing, this is kung fu. You start practicing kung fu and doing your homework.
It started in Ceng Zi and Ceng Zi called it "I save myself three times a day". He thinks every day, "I am unfaithful to others, but I don't believe in making friends. I just can't get used to it." This thing is handed down step by step. Go to Zeng Guofan and keep a diary every day. Then I often write letters, all for constant reflection.
Finally, everyone's evaluation is that Zeng Guofan is exhausted. After he fought the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he would also fight the Nian Army. When he finished the Nian Jun, his health was completely exhausted. On several occasions, he was incontinent and prone on his body. Then sometimes I walk, and suddenly my feet are numb and I can't walk. I went out to participate in foreign affairs activities, and as a result, I couldn't walk, and I was carried away. This is actually a precursor to a stroke. As far as we can see today, there must be something wrong with his cardiovascular system. His grandfather and father both had strokes. And then died of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It's a family tradition.
Later, at the end of Zeng Guofan's speech, I will read to you how Zeng Guofan spent his last few days. Think about what we can do in the year before we die. Look at what Zeng Guofan is doing. Until the end of his life, Zeng Guofan still did not stop his high-intensity work or stop his introspection.
The 29th day of the first month was the fifth day before his death. After getting up in the morning, he felt his pulse twice and wrote a prescription. Pack up the papers after breakfast. Meet the guests five times. Then look at the suicide note of Cheng Cheng, which is the work of Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao. We have a visitor. Let's talk. Read today's documents after lunch and meet a guest. Examination and approval of manuscripts and documents in the examination room. Then talk to the room above and take a nap at night. In the evening, the five drafts of the letter were revised, and about 500 words were revised. Even five days before his death, he kept a diary In my diary, I said that my recent state is really bad, where is not good, where is not good, and I still remember many physical problems.
On the fourth day before his death on February 1, he wrote in his diary, "My spirit has been wandering for a long time. Things that should be settled can't be settled for a long time, and things that should be cleaned up can't be checked for a long time. If there are leaves all over the mountain, there is no home to return to. General knowledge for more than 30 years is the best for an official, but nothing has been achieved in his studies, his virtue is not allowed, and his boss is injured. " Four days left, this man will leave, and he is still criticizing himself for nothing. He is a senior official.
February 2, three days before his death. He still works as usual, but he feels very tired. "If you can't cure it," your right hand trembled in the afternoon, and you couldn't hold a pen and talk. The symptoms were the same as those on the 26th day of the first month. Had to stop business.
February 3, the day before his death. After getting up in the morning, please see a doctor. After breakfast, I packed my papers, read Biography of Neo-Confucianism, played two rounds of Go and read Biography of Neo-Confucianism. Read today's documents after lunch, and then meet the guests. After a nap, the nuclear medicine room approved the manuscript. At this time, the image of shaking hands and hearts appeared. Then read Biography of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. Then go to bed at four o'clock. Always reading, always reading, always working.
The fourth day of February in the eleventh year of Tongzhi, namely1March 872 12, was Zeng Guofan's time limit. On this day, his daughter recorded that after dinner in March 12, the sisters at home also cut some oranges for him to eat. After dinner, he said that he was in good spirits today and went for a walk in the garden. He was walking and suddenly collapsed at his feet. His son hugged him and said that if his shoes were not put on properly. He found that his legs could not stand. He quickly took a chair and sat him in the hall. After sitting for a while, he died. This is Zeng Guofan's old age. Zeng Guofan died at 6 1. It's really not a long life, but at that time, in fact, according to his conditions, he could take good care of his body.
But he basically works, writes and reads with high intensity every day, and he has perfectly combined self-cultivation with work. He never thinks doing homework is a job, he thinks it is to recuperate the body and mind. It is a process of constantly improving self-cultivation, which is the highest pursuit of China scholars. But whether you can finally combine your self-cultivation with your career.
Many of us will often say today that I have no time to practice, I have no time to study, and I have no time to do anything. It seems that we work, do things and talk to others every day just to cope with things. In fact, those things are the process of cultivation. You learn from Zeng Guofan, and you are still learning to write at the last moment of your old age. My whole life is over.
Finally, it is worth mentioning how Zeng Guofan was thoroughly remoulded. Because you know that all people who study Zeng Guofan will find that Zeng Guofan was not so cute before he was 30 years old. Before he was 30, he was basically a layman. Why? He is just for fame and fortune, in order to pay homage to his ancestors. It is for these things that he has a particularly bad temper and is not very good as a clerk. He often quarrels with others. This was summed up by Zeng Guofan, that is to say, impetuous, arrogant, uneducated and hypocritical. These are his four biggest problems. So how did he reinvent himself in response to these four questions?
You know, Wang Yangming met Lou Liang at the age of 18, and he realized that saints can learn. And then decided to be a saint. Zeng Guofan began to have good friends at the age of 30. Only he met a large group of people who were very eager to study in Beijing. These people are great. There is a saying in ancient China that "those who don't help themselves don't help themselves." If the grass is soft, if you let it grow by itself, it will fall down. But if it is surrounded by hemp and hard, you don't have to hold it in hemp, it will straighten up.
In Zeng Guofan's words, this is called, with teachers and friends, this clip, with teachers and friends to maintain. This period of time can make him grow straight. So at the age of 30, he decided to be a saint, called the sage's ambition. What is the ambition of a saint? "The amount of characters is the industry of the sage inside and the king outside." That is, I want to have such a big figure, and I want to work for the whole country and the whole world. This is the importance of determination. So when he set such a goal, he stuck to it. This is our young people today. Can we set an ambitious goal? If this ambition can follow us all our lives, you will find that you have a steady stream of motivation to do things. This is a very important reason why Zeng Guofan was thoroughly remoulded.
The second is how to carry out these things, that is, you have great ambitions. If you don't have the process of realization, it will be abandoned and put down slowly. The most important of Zeng Guofan's methods is "day class". How to attend Japanese class? Keep a diary in business letters every day. As far as you know, if we start writing running script smartly, we will soon. Cursive script, I don't even know myself after writing it. You should cultivate your mind and write regular script, which is your father-in-law's regular script. Then when I write this diary every day, I don't just keep a diary, but retrieve my words and deeds. This diary is about my day's trial. Very interesting.
Zeng Guofan once ran out to get together with others. At the dinner table of the party, others take concubines, and he looks at them. I was particularly sad when I came back, so I wrote that someone else brought a concubine today. I thought it was very nice, so I took a second look. What a good animal. Said he was an animal. Another time he went out, someone had a birthday. Then I played there for a day. When I came back, I felt that this day was really hard, wasting time and a day.
There are also successful ones. Others played chess with him and played a game. After the next game, others played another game. He watched two episodes beside him, and his heart itched after watching two episodes. I thought, why don't I take a vacation today and indulge myself? As many of us said today, let's take a trip. This kind of feeling, Zeng Guofan struggled for a long time and returned to his study. Then write it all down. The diary is full of this fierce ideological struggle. Write it all down. So he is a very self-denying person, constantly reflecting on himself every day and doing it by day shift.
Zhu had a set of cultivation methods, which greatly inspired Zeng Guofan. There are two good words. If a person wants to adjust his mind and reverse our past habits, it is called "boiling with fierce fire". Slow fire temperature. "What do you mean by strong fire cooking? Just don't come up too gently, you can't turn without making a sharp turn. Then why is he? At the beginning, I was very strict with myself, writing so many diaries every day. Cook with a big fire, and attack with a big fire first. The slow fire temperature after the attack means a long duration and can be constant.
It's nothing to keep a diary for about a year, but it's great to be able to keep it for 50 or 60 years. So after reading the front and side of Zeng Guofan, no kidding, I really found a diary. Even now everyone is blogging about Weibo. I always feel that writing is better than not writing, so I take a diary, write a diary every day and write it in my notebook. In case you want to write an autobiography or something in the future, you will have something to read. I have to write it down. I have to start and slowly retrieve words and deeds.
Zeng Guofan used this fierce cooking method to quit smoking. As far as he used to smoke, there was smoke everywhere, and he smoked with a big pipe in his hand all day. He thinks it's bad for the image, bad for the health and addictive. It is difficult to give up smoking, which is what Zhu said about fierce cooking. After cooking on a big fire, it is expensive to keep the ground temperature constant with slow fire. Is that you can persist.
Zeng Guofan said that it was called "no turning back" and had the word "resistance". See him as an official, teach you the word "exhibition" and drag it on. Being a man teaches you the formula of "tolerance", and you must be patient and persistent in doing it. This is a very important reason for Zeng Guofan's great changes around the age of 30. It's not a matter of time. Because each of us, some may be over 30 years old and some may be younger. These are opportunities. At any time, as long as you think your life should turn, you should set a direction for yourself and you can learn from Zeng Guofan. Because he is an ordinary person, his qualification may be worse than ours. But if you persist, you will achieve something.
In this book, in addition to Zeng Guofan's life and his five major losses. There are many interesting details. For example, Zeng Guofan's body, what is going on? Where did Zeng Guofan's money come from and how was it economically? What is his private life like? Wait, that's interesting. Then why is it called the front side? It is very detailed.
This Mr. Zhang Hongjie became famous after writing this book. A series of books about Zeng Guofan came out one after another. So we invited Mr. Zhang Hongjie to study in Fan Deng, and made a column to give you an in-depth analysis of Zeng Guofan. If you are really interested in Zeng Guofan, you can go to Fan Deng to read APP and look at this column of Teacher Zhang Hongjie.
Finally, we use Guo Songtao's words to evaluate Zeng Guofan. Guo Songtao is also a friend of Zeng Guofan and a very famous person. Someone asked Guo Songtao why there were so many talented people in modern Hunan. There are many talented people in Hunan, and so many people have come out, so they are called "only Chu Youcai". So many capable people. Guo Songtao responded that "Chu people are only a little stupid, and Confucius said they are stupid." .
As we all know, in the Analects of Confucius, there is a passage that evaluates Ning Wuzi, saying that "Ning Wuzi is wise but stupid." As far as Ning Wuzi is concerned, I can be as smart as I am. I can be as clever as him. But he is so stupid that I can't do it. Because "stupid" is not swearing, "stupid" is that this person is really powerful. This man is stupid, and I can't do that kung fu.
We used to think that "stupidity" was a curse. In fact, stupidity is a compliment. It means that this Ning Wuzi is very good, and Confucius thinks he is great. Therefore, Guo Songtao said that "Chu people only take three points for stupidity", which means stupidity. "Stupid" means that I am so stupid and persistent. I have been doing it slowly, "fight a plain battle in a down-to-earth manner." In the end, I can do what others can't. So after listening to this book, I hope you can think about whether you can learn to be a slow person, a stupid person and, most importantly, a diligent person!