Why is Zeng Guofan so unpopular?

Zeng Guofan was not popular because he violated the unspoken rules of officialdom and was "reviled" when he was a Beijing official.

There are two versions of Zeng Guofan's theory. One is that "Yu Chu was scolded by the powerful people in the capital", and the other is that "in the Gengxu year, he gave a lecture on the internal affairs, and the picture he drew was very crude. There was no one among the nine ministers." Don’t sneer but belittle it.”

Zeng Guofan's career as a Beijing official was smooth sailing from the perspective of promotion. During his stay in Beijing, he moved seven times in ten years and stood out among the officials. He quickly rose from an ordinary Jinshi to a "deputy ministerial level" official, which was extremely rare during the Daoguang period.

1. The Qing Dynasty during the Daoguang period was like a critically ill and dying patient. Externally, the Opium War dealt a subversive blow to the self-esteem and self-confidence of the subjects of the Chinese Empire. Internally, corruption has penetrated into every cell of the empire's body. All the limbs and internal organs are rotten. A earth-shaking uprising is brewing. Under such circumstances, the politicians of the Qing Dynasty remained calm and contented themselves.

The political character of Emperor Daoguang was one of being tired of following the rules and trying to live in peace. Everyone is like passengers sitting in an old dilapidated car, watching it run towards the abyss, but they all remain silent, as if it is not their own business.

Only Zeng Guofan was depressed. As early as the 24th year of Daoguang reign and six years before the Taiping Rebellion, Zeng Guofan had a keen premonition that a great turmoil sweeping the country was brewing. When he was in the Imperial Academy, Zeng Guofan could only study to support his career and had no say in national politics. When he reached the rank of second minister, he thought he could finally show off his skills, but found that it was just like Wang Meng's words: "You don't know how small an official is until you become a minister." When he was the deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites, he spent all day long, although he didn't I took a short rest, but I was busy with official matters such as "waiting for this", which did not contribute to the national affairs at all. Occasionally, some innovative proposals were put aside by the ministers and academicians.

In 1850, Emperor Daoguang died, and Xianfeng, who was only 20 years old, ascended the throne. He deposed Mu Zhang'a and issued an edict to "seek for words."

Zeng Guofan was in an excited mood and wrote a "Chen Yan Shu" in response to the imperial edict, denounced the official style of the time of "taking fear of the emperor as fear, and using softness as respect", which exposed the ugly shape of officialdom at that time. He suggested that the emperor hold "daily lectures", that is, strengthen study, use his own spirit to reverse the leakage in the officialdom, and at the same time reform the official selection method so that enterprising officers have the opportunity to stand out.

This memorial received a good response, and the emperor greatly appreciated him. He was most interested in the "Japanese Lecture" suggestion and ordered him to explain it in detail. So Zeng Guofan carefully prepared his lecture notes and drew a diagram explaining the layout of the lecture hall. However, he was not good at drawing, and this picture was quite ugly.

After the speech was circulated among the nine ministers, Zeng Guofan became the center of discussion in Beijing official circles. What everyone was talking about was not his sincerity, but ridiculing him for "too crude a picture": At this level, how can he be called a disciple of a saint!

In fact, the official circles were already suffocating with Zeng Guofan, a fool from Hunan who flew up in a helicopter. "If a tree is beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy it." Seeing that his memorial described Beijing officials in such a bad light, the officials were furious. Well, if the whole court is drunk, you alone are sober, and if the whole court is turbid, you alone are clear? Just because you are loyal to the Qing Dynasty, are we all trash?

As a result, Zeng Guofan's "joke" quickly became popular and spread throughout the city. People "smiled at him" when they saw him, making Zeng Guofan feel ashamed and embarrassed for his whole life. This is what Zeng Guofan called "the second biggest chasm in his life."

2. This "second chasm" did not depress Zeng Guofan, but instead aroused his determination to fight against this bureaucratic system. For more than a year, he was full of sincerity and devoted himself to his wisdom. He successively wrote many memorials such as "Ying Zhao Chen Yan Shu", "Bei Chen Folk Sufferings", "Ping Yin Price Shu" and so on, and pointed out various problems in a comprehensive and in-depth way. The crisis and the many problems existing in the bureaucracy called on the emperor to take drastic measures and implement thorough reforms.

However, Xianfeng was narrow-minded and mediocre in temperament, and could not be said to be talented or ambitious at all.

He had no fixed opinion on how to control the politics of the Qing Dynasty. He hastily read through Zeng Guofan's painstaking excerpts, praised them casually, and threw them into the wastebasket afterwards. Zeng Guofan was greatly disappointed and became increasingly anxious. Because chaos in the world has changed from possibility to reality. In the first year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army rose up and quickly swept through Guangxi. Emperor Xianfeng was unprepared for this chaos. Like a headless fly, his command was chaotic and his arrangements were at a loss. Zeng Guofan believed that the only way to save the Qing Empire was to wake up this confused emperor. Driven by a strong sense of responsibility, Zeng Guofan, who was known for his caution, made an extremely rare move in late Qing official circles: he bluntly criticized the emperor. He published "Respecting Chen Shengde and Preventing Corruptions", which pointed out the three shortcomings of Emperor Xianfeng: "being careful about small things but neglecting big things", "only showing off in words and not pursuing reality", being stubborn and going back on his word.

The reaction of Emperor Xianfeng, who was young and vigorous but had a particularly fragile and sensitive self-esteem, can be imagined. It is recorded in the history that "the emperor read the memorial and was so angry that he threw the people to the ground and summoned the military ministers to punish him." Fortunately, Qi Junzao, Ji Changzhi and other great scholars pled hard for him, and Zeng Guofan was saved from being convicted. Under the persuasion of his ministers, Emperor Xianfeng instead gave a few false compliments to Zeng, but then issued a long edict to defend himself in detail, rejecting Zeng Guofan's main accusations tit for tat.

The emperor was furious, and Zeng Guofan was not surprised. However, the emperor's argument made him realize that it was impossible to suddenly wake up the emperor through bitter remonstrances. After that, he continued to submit memorials proposing reforms, but they were mostly based on facts and no longer had similar naive and impassioned remarks.

3. Originally, Zeng Guofan was quite popular among Beijing officials. However, two consecutive challenges to the "big name" (offending Qishan and impeaching Sai Shang'a) caused huge damage to the interpersonal network. Hole. Because Qi Shan's disciples are known all over the world, he also has a deep relationship with Mu Zhang'a. Zeng Guofan broke the unspoken rule of "officials protecting each other" and became an outlier in the officialdom. "When the nobles saw him, they would shun him or even refuse to sit with him at the same table." Of course, there were countless slanderous words behind him. Zeng Guofan became a figure reviled by almost everyone in the capital in the second year of Xianfeng.

In his last days in the capital, Zeng Guofan was often in trouble and suffered from mental pain. He missed his hometown more and more. The country was in a state of decline, and he tried every possible means, but to no avail, and he inevitably began to think about quitting again.

In June of the second year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan finally got the job of being an examiner of the Jiangxi Provincial Examination. He happily fled the capital, which disappointed and disgusted him, and prepared to retire and return home. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived in Taihe County, Anhui Province, he received the obituary news that his mother had passed away. He immediately changed his clothes and returned to his hometown for the funeral. This officially ended his 14-year career as a Beijing official.