This may be related to his whole experience and his long-term chronic disease.
Zeng Guofan was more self-disciplined all his life. He insisted on getting up early, attending classes every day, exercising, sitting quietly, and cultivating self-cultivation, which kept him energetic in his constant running and made him achieve great success in the ups and downs of his career for decades.
And these also give us a lot of inspiration and thinking for future generations.
Zeng Guofan paid great attention to getting up early and regarded getting up early as a life creed and habit. He not only insists on getting up early every day, but also advises his brother and children to get up early.
The ancients said, "Get up early with three lights, and get up late with three shortages". In other words, people who get up early can have more time to deal with some things and keep things in order, while people who get up late spend a lot of time and don't have enough time to deal with things, which will only make things worse and worse, leading to the end of famine.
Zeng Guofan mentioned in "Getting up early is a magic prescription" that "getting up early is a magic prescription, and longevity is also an elixir."
He thinks getting up early is very beneficial to health, which is better and more effective than taking any medicine.
Nowadays, many young people have irregular schedules. They play games, watch mobile phones, brush movies and TV plays, and go to bars at night. They regard staying up late as a routine, usually staying up late, and some even play all night.
Some people often stay up late and work overtime, and their schedules are chaotic.
Don't sleep at night, don't want to get up in the morning. Some sleep naturally every day, and some even sleep until noon or afternoon. So black and white are reversed, regardless of day and night. In the long run, it will not only disrupt the pace of life, but also overdraw the body, and ultimately it will not pay off.
Getting up early not only reflects a person's mental state, but also reflects a person's "constant" quality. Most importantly, good work and rest habits will be extremely beneficial to the body and the golden key to maintaining a good attitude.
Zeng Guofan said in his letter: "I have been paying attention to the meaning of the word' cherish happiness' all my life. I have been taking supplements recently, and vegetables are more luxurious than in previous years. I am ashamed to entertain myself, but I am too weak to do so. "
He was deeply uneasy about taking tonic and thought he liked it too much, but he had to do it because he was too weak. In the letter, Zeng Guofan also mentioned that the fourth brother took tonic.
Zeng Guofan's fourth brother is a restless man, who likes to worry, play suona and drink. Although he is ten years younger than Zeng Guofan and in his prime of life, he is taking precious tonics such as velvet antler and Korean ginseng every day.
Zeng Guofan actually didn't agree with his brother taking tonic. Although he said in his letter that it was because his younger brother was weak and had to do something, in fact, he was very opposed to his younger brother starting to take tonics so early, so he constantly stressed that people should know how to "cherish happiness".
This is actually a euphemism to persuade my brother not to take supplements too early.
Zeng Guofan has his own views on taking medicine when he is ill. In Yu Jize, taking a thousand steps after meals is the first secret of health preservation, he said: "Medicine can not only produce health, but also harm people. A good doctor is seven out of ten living people and three out of ten harmful people; Nine times out of ten, quacks harm people, and nine times out of ten, living people. "
It can be seen that he doesn't quite agree that people should take medicine when they are sick, but he prefers that people should exercise more.
As the saying goes, "Take a walk after dinner and live to ninety-nine". Zeng Guofan said in his letter: "Walking thousands of steps after meals every day is the first secret of health. After each meal, you can go to Tangjiapu or Uncle Cheng's house and come back about 3,000 steps. After three months, there will be great results. "
He warned his son, Ji Ze, to walk thousands of steps after meals every day to be healthy. Walking after a meal can't make people live forever, but it is really good for your health.
From the point of view of modern medicine, walking is very beneficial to your health.
First of all, walking can stimulate the cerebral cortex, thus making people clear-headed, eliminating fatigue and relaxing.
Secondly, when walking, the abdominal muscles contract and the breathing deepens, which can play a certain "massage" role in the stomach, promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, strengthen abdominal blood circulation, and thus improve digestion.
Thirdly, when walking, the ventilation in the lungs is twice as high as that at rest, so it is beneficial to the health of the respiratory system.
Walking is a kind of whole-body exercise, which can fully mobilize the muscles and bones of the whole body, thus improving the metabolic rate of the human body, exercising muscles and promoting blood circulation, which is very beneficial to health.
However, it should be noted that you should not exercise immediately after eating, and you should rest for a few minutes before taking a walk. And you don't have to walk thousands of steps, you have to do it according to everyone's physical condition, about 10 to 30 minutes.
For example, people who are usually short of exercise, obese and prone to indigestion can walk for a while, and people who are old and weak can walk for a while to avoid fatigue.
You don't need to walk too fast after dinner, just walk around.
If you sit on the sofa or lie in bed after a meal, it will lead to the accumulation of waste in your body, and you will get sick after a long time, so walking after a meal is really a good way to keep fit.
Zeng Guofan attached great importance to the word "cherish happiness" all his life.
"Cherish the blessings" is the traditional thought of China, who thinks that the blessings are given by heaven, and the blessings enjoyed by a person in his life are limited, so he must cherish them all the time. If you waste money when you are young, you may lose money for the rest of your life.
This statement sounds ridiculous, but there is no denying that it has positive significance in life.
First of all, knowing how to cherish blessings will make people know how to converge.
In real life, "happiness" is manifested in money, power, status, health and so on. These things can bring happiness to people, but if they are not used properly, they can also bring disaster to people.
For example, too much money will make people arrogant and extravagant, too much power will make people greedy, too high a position may bully others, and healthy people may ignore medical care.
Therefore, the saying of "cherishing happiness" can make people understand convergence and self-discipline, which has to be said to be a good way to prevent disasters.
Secondly, people who know how to cherish happiness are often contented. No one knows how many blessings there will be in this life, so we can only enjoy what we have now and be grateful for the gift of God, so we can have a good attitude.
If you don't cherish your blessings, even if you are rich and powerful, you will be dissatisfied.
Happiness lies not in how many things you have, but in how much happiness you can get from what you have.