How did Zeng Guofan get rid of his lustful habits?

Let’s talk about Zeng Guofan, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty and the resurgence of the Qing Dynasty. Historical records record that Zeng Guofan was very lecherous, so let’s take a look at how lecherous Zeng Guofan really was.

In fact, compared with many of us today, Zeng Guofan’s lust is nothing compared to that of a big witch, and is not worth mentioning at all. When Zeng Guofan was young, he never lived together unmarried like today's young people. He had friends of the opposite sex one after another, and each of them had engaged in lewd behavior. Nor is it like many people nowadays who are addicted to pornography and trapped in obscenity. Zeng Guofan liked to keep diaries, and his diaries also tell us that he did not have the bad habit of self-destruction. Although Zeng Guofan later attained a high and powerful position, he did not have bad records such as having a mistress or a concubine, let alone one-night stands now. Faced with such a calm gentleman, why would the world call Zeng Guofan lustful?

In Zeng Guofan's diary records, we saw two unabashedly lustful episodes of Zeng Guofan.

In December 1842, Zeng Guofan’s friend Chen Yuangun married a new little wife. Friends were talking about how beautiful Chen Yuangun’s little wife was and how she looked like a peach blossom. After Zeng Guofan heard about it, he was so envious that he ran to Chen Yuangun's house specifically to meet the beautiful woman everyone said. Arriving at a friend's house, Zeng Guofan, who pretended to be a poet, had a casual chat with Chen Yuangun, and then turned the topic to women. He praised Chen Yuangun for being so beautiful and blessed, and wanted to see his wife Chen's beauty. Chen Yuangun knew very well that Zeng Guofan was lustful and refused at first, but he couldn't stand Zeng Guofan's insistence, so he called out his new concubine. When Zeng Guofan saw her beauty, he couldn't help but admire her. At the same time, he said many provocative words to this beautiful little lady, which made Chen Yuangun and his wife very embarrassed. After Zeng Guofan returned home that night, he wrote in his diary what he said in his diary. "Obscene and disrespectful" at a friend's house.

Another time, Zeng Guofan went to a party at the home of a classmate. This classmate came from a wealthy family, with bells ringing, food dishes, and concubines like clouds. This "opened his eyes" to Zeng Guofan. After seeing this beauty, Zeng Guofan It was a feast for the eyes to look at that beautiful woman again, but his move was quite inelegant and made the students present laugh. Later he wrote in his diary: "On this day, I have been looked at evilly. I am really not a human being. I am completely ashamed."

In fact, Zeng Guofan, as a generation of heroes and feudal officials, in that feudal society Here you could have lived a free and easy life, enjoying comfort and happiness, even if you indulged in sex, it would be harmless. However, Zeng Guofan felt that this was insulting to his politeness and would also affect his own cultivation, so the fact of Zeng Guofan's rebooting came to light.

Zeng Guofan started his abstinence by writing a diary. In the diary, Zeng Guofan, a Confucian scholar who cultivated his moral character, ruthlessly recorded his lustful behavior and obscene thoughts, and continued to criticize and reflect on himself. With the ideal state of "preserving heaven's principles and destroying human desires", we can achieve our own super self-control.

In addition, while Zeng Guofan was reading the books of sages, he also studied hard. After studying, he worked hard to keep himself free from officialdom and the romance in life.