The life of Zeng Guofan, the mainstay of the late Qing Dynasty.

Mao Zedong said: "A fool loves his own man and obeys Ceng Wenzheng alone."

Chiang Kai-shek commented on Zeng Guofan like this: "Lide said that immortality is a perfect teacher."

The evaluation of Zeng Guofan by people from two hostile camps is highly unified and perfect.

Throughout his life, Chiang Kai-shek always had two books at hand, a Bible and a letter from Zeng Guofan.

In fact, compared with another perfect man in history, Wang Yangming, Zeng Guofan is not even a middleman. He is really a silly boy.

Who is Zeng Guofan and why do so many people admire Zeng Guofan? Listen to me.

Let me introduce Zeng Guofan's family background first.

Zeng Guofan, male, Han nationality,18111from Xiangxiang County, Changsha, Hunan Province. According to the present situation, it should be the middle class.

Tell me about Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan was a silly child when he was a child. There is another story. He was reading at home one night, and he reread an article many times, but he still didn't recite it. There is a thief lurking under the eaves, trying to get some benefits after the scholar sleeps, but he just doesn't sleep and reads the article over and over again. The thief couldn't stand it anymore, so he pushed the door and said, "What are you looking at at at this level?" Recite the article casually and left.

Even if you are stupid, you still have a lot of problems, like smoking, lewd, grumpy, often arguing with people, like dinner, seafood, watching the fun, and often going to the food market to watch people kill and behead ... but this is just a problem before Zeng Guofan was thirty, the so-called thirty. After the age of 30, he gradually changed. During Ding You's one and a half years, Zeng Guofan reflected on the previous one, which was greatly improved and can be said to be thoroughly remoulded. In the past, he was resolute and vigorous, arguing with others and asking others what he thought was right. I often quarrel with people, and I fought with my friends twice when I was an official in Beijing. I am strong, and I have suffered a lot for it. After that, he changed his sharpness when he was young and became a "smooth accident". He was tolerant and generous to others and gave enough face. But strictly control yourself. Be strict with yourself and lenient with others, such as reaching the realm of saints.

Zeng Guofan is not a wise man, and his talent is not high. He took seven exams before winning the prize, but why did he succeed and spread it to this day?

No great man can do it overnight, but it is all accumulated slowly, so-called thick accumulation and thin hair. What you can see is the surface and experience. What you can't see is affection and fate.

Zeng Guofan experienced despair. In the twelfth year of Daoguang, Zeng Guofan took the imperial examination for the sixth time. Compared with the previous five failures, it dealt him a greater blow. At that time, the director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Education criticized him for being "too shallow in arts and sciences" and registered as a donor. (Donating students refers to candidates whose grades are not bad, but who are not good at learning. It would be nice if he won the first imperial examination. However, this is Zeng Guofan's sixth exam, and the identity of donating students has hit him as much as once. This is in our modern times, just like a child, who failed the college entrance examination five times, but only won a finalist award for the sixth time. I was told that your performance is still not good. I've seen you take the exam so many times, and you work hard without credit. Next time, you can avoid going to physical education class.

Zeng Guofan also passed by death. In the second year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army went all the way north, and the whole of Hunan almost fell. Emperor Xianfeng was in a hurry and called Zeng Guofan, who was filial to his mother in the countryside, to set up a "Yong Ying" in Changsha. After Zeng Guofan arrived in Changsha, regardless of the hidden rules of officialdom, he set up a "judicial bureau" to deal with bandits, hooligans and robbers as soon as possible. "The big case is played by yourself, and the small one is only played for me." Just to prevent someone from pleading, many officials have been cut off. The case is money, but it is also a great favor if it is not money.

What is more exaggerated is that the number of cases handled by Zeng Guofan in the past six months has exceeded the total number of cases in Hunan in the past ten years. Zeng Guofan didn't respect administrative procedures, and regarded Hunan officials as nothing, which hurt the face of civil servants. You want to be a good official and come up with achievements, which is understandable. Who doesn't want to climb up? But can you stop stepping on us so hard and make us look so incompetent? What you have done in half a year has surpassed the achievements of Hunan for decades. How can other people's faces be so posed?

Therefore, the entire Hunan official chose to completely isolate this "bald head."

At that time, green camp Army, a regular army in Hunan, particularly disliked Zeng Guofan's Yong ying. One day, he found a reason to make trouble. With the help of local officials, these soldiers of fortune boldly besieged Zeng Guofan's office.

Luo, the governor of the office next door, pretended not to hear or see. When other officials saw this, they were even more gloating, waiting for a joke. Zeng Guofan thought that green camp was bold again and would never dare to attack him by force. So after being surrounded, I still handled the official documents as if nothing had happened. In the end, I overestimated the reason of the warrior of destiny. Several followers of Zeng Guofan were injured and almost committed suicide. What is even more gratifying is that I can't speak in pain, and I have no place to complain. I can only bite my teeth and swallow my blood.

When I was young, I lost to Sun Shan six times. As an official of the Qing Dynasty, I was not only restrained everywhere in Changsha, but also almost died here.

Although these failures are different in magnitude, they are all in different stages of life, and the degree of attack on Zeng Guofan can be said to be equal.

For most people, any failure is enough to make life fall to the bottom.

But again and again, Zeng Guofan not only climbed out of the quagmire of failure, but also had earth-shaking changes.

After the sixth failure, Zeng Guofan suddenly became proficient and his articles made great progress. He won the scholar for the seventh time, won the prize one year later, and was a scholar again four years later.

After the defeat in Changsha, Zeng Guofan left the wrong place and went to Hengyang to train the regiment army, eventually becoming the most effective Xiang army in the late Qing Dynasty.

Nietzsche said that people who can't kill me will definitely make me stronger. After experiencing major setbacks in life, Zeng Guofan always regarded failure as a gift, and the pace of progress never stopped.

The so-called life is just an excuse for the weak and a modest speech for the strong.

I remember a saying: human death is divided into three stages, the beating of the heart means the death of the body, and the end of the funeral means the death of society. And the final death is forgotten by the last person in the world.

Although Zeng Guofan has been dead for nearly a century and a half, so many people still remember him and there are many stories about him in the world. Tens of millions of people regard him as an idol. What about us? (Refer to Zhang Hongjie's "The Front and Side of Zeng Guofan" section)