All beings are suffering, with sorrow and joy.
While crossing ourselves, we are also striving to pursue a more perfect self.
Zeng Guofan, known as "the first perfect man in the late Qing Dynasty", condensed the six disasters he experienced in his life into his life wisdom, which was collected in the Complete Works of Zeng Zheng Wen, leaving valuable spiritual wealth for future generations.
There are six robberies in life, and it is a blessing to get through them.
The plunder of poverty
Han Feizi said: Good at dancing with long sleeves and good at money.
It means that long sleeves are good at dancing, and more money is easier to do business. No matter what you do, the richer the conditions, the closer you are to success.
Adults' confidence is all given by money.
Zeng Guofan was born in a small landlord family in Hunan. Because of his many brothers, his family is only a little richer than ordinary people.
In my early years, I went to Beijing to catch the exam, but I still relied on my relatives to gather together dozens of taels of silver to get on the road.
Even though he later took part in scientific research and became an official in Beijing in 13, he still failed to change his economic predicament because he was not good at making profits.
In the 22nd year of Daoguang, Zeng Guofan, who worked in imperial academy, had a conflict with a servant named Bobby Chen. In a rage, Bobby Chen went to find another branch.
How dare a servant quarrel with his master? Originally, Zeng Guofan owed Bobby Chen a few months' salary.
This incident greatly stimulated Zeng Guofan's heart. He wrote a poem and sighed:
"There is no money in the box. I am proud of myself all my life, but I am proud of my slave! "
The implication is that I am so poor that even slaves look down on me!
Later, he became a very important minister, which not only improved the economic situation, but also accumulated rich family wealth for the whole family.
When we were young, we longed to go to the ends of the earth with swords. When we grow up, we know that we are struggling without money.
It is an adult's consciousness to make more money while young, because money can really cure most of the sadness in life.
A failed robbery
Nine times out of ten, life is unsatisfactory, and it is normal to ask for it.
Zeng Guofan often put this sentence on his lips: "Heroes bite their teeth and swallow blood."
It sounds unremarkable, but if it is reflected in his personal experience, you will know how difficult it is.
Although Zeng Guofan was later called "semi-saint", his qualifications were quite mediocre.
From the age of 14, I took the imperial examination for the first time, and I took it seven times in a row before I was admitted to middle school.
When he was an official in Beijing, he was a hillbilly, scolded to pieces by powerful people in Beijing, and even died.
When Xiang Yong Battalion formed the Taiping Army, it was killed by Taiping Army in Changsha, Yuezhou and Hukou, and attempted suicide three times.
His experience for most of his life can be summed up in four words-"Repeated defeats and repeated wars".
But it was with this perseverance that he became the final winner.
As Sebrina said in his starry sky speech: "Success is only accidental, and failure is the normal state of life."
Born as human beings, the failures and setbacks we have suffered are not terrible. What is terrible is that we have lost the ability of faith and reflection.
The robbery of life and death
Life itself is a parting that is drifting away.
Each of us will inevitably encounter illness and death in our life. What matters is how we learn to face it.
Zeng Guofan's five brothers, as eldest brothers, pay great attention to the cultivation of their four younger brothers, and often write letters to teach them the way to cultivate themselves, hoping that they can make achievements.
It's just that things haven't been solved. Before Zeng Guofan made his fortune, his second brother and younger brother left him.
Ceng Guohua, the most talented of the brothers, was narrow-minded and had a tense relationship with Zeng Guofan.
However, after learning that the eldest brother was besieged by Taiping rebels in Jiangxi, he never took a single soldier and resolutely led the army to rescue him.
After meeting, the two brothers wept bitterly, and from then on, they forgave each other.
1858, Ceng Guohua's regiment was besieged by Taiping rebels in sanhe town, Anhui province, and was completely annihilated.
The bad news came that Zeng Guofan was heartbroken and almost vomited blood and died.
My younger brother, Zeng, was timid and obedient, and worshipped my older brother very much. He often opens Zeng Guofan's letters to him.
Under the influence of Zeng Guofan, he was modest and eager to learn, and managed the army well.
1862, when the Xiang army besieged Tianjing, it visited the front line to supervise the war day and night, and finally died of the plague at the age of 33.
At this point, Zeng Guofan's heart has lost the heartbreaking pain when he lost his second brother. It is more detached and indifferent.
People who have experienced the death of their loved ones will eventually understand how fragile life is.
There are many lives in the world, which is the most cruel fact in the world.
Obsessed robbery
Nan huaijin said: "Reading history for three thousand years is nothing more than fame and fortune; Nine Wan Li's enlightenment, after all, poetry and wine are idyllic. "
Persistence in dealing with impermanence is the root of pain.
Most of the troubles in life come from the mental picture that you can't open and see through.
Even if Zeng Guofan is such a master of life, it is inevitable that he cannot see through it.
Before the age of 40, he looked like an ordinary person struggling in human society:
He is arrogant and introverted. When he first arrived in Beijing as an official, he could talk to people across the table.
His emotional intelligence is extremely low, his speech is inferior, he likes to show off, he is angered by his colleagues, he can't be a man, and even he has met each other for a long time.
He is reckless, but he doesn't know it. He obeyed the orders of Emperor Xianfeng, but he was removed from military power for a whole year.
Even he wrote to complain to his family and encouraged his younger brothers to study hard and make progress, which was also denounced as "melodramatic entanglement, smelly and long".
Borrow a line from a movie: "Don't overestimate yourself for two years, and don't underestimate yourself for ten years."
A true wise man will never limit his cognition to the small world in front of him.
After a year of reflection, Zeng Guofan suddenly realized:
What I meet is not that my superiors are demanding, my colleagues are jealous, my brothers are not motivated, and I am so demanding of others. Aren't you eager for success?
He later summed up this experience into the anthology:
"Since Ding Si and Wu Wuda regretted it, I know that I have no skills at all, and I also see that people are different in all aspects, and they are different from those before forty."
From the age of 4 1, everyone who met him was surprised to find that Zeng Guofan seemed to be reborn and he became kind, modest and sincere.
It is wisdom and maturity to be optimistic in everything, not moved by honor or disgrace, and not to care about gains or losses.
Greedy plunder
Hokkekyo said, "All pain is caused by greed."
If greed is insatiable, if it can't be detected in time, greed will be aggravated, followed by infinite pain.
Zeng Guofan's reputation for self-cultivation was very high, and hundreds of thousands of Xiang troops under him were also the most powerful armed forces at that time, which made people doubt whether he had the ambition to stand on his own feet as emperor.
According to rumors, loyal Li Xiucheng, after being captured, expressed his willingness to take hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of the Yangtze River and take Zeng Guofan as emperor.
Within the Xiang army, Hu Linyi, Zuo and others advised Zeng Guofan to stand on his own feet as emperor.
After the conquest of Anqing, Xiang generals suggested a banquet to congratulate each other. Zeng Guofan did not allow it, but only people were allowed to give each other gifts.
A general named Li was the first to present a couplet: "You have no seeds, and the emperor makes sense."
Zeng Guofan saw Li Hou and scolded him, then tore up He Lian.
Zeng Guofan's 60th birthday, Hubei Governor Hu Linyi came to congratulate him.
After some conversation, Hu Linyi wrote this sentence on the case: "Southeast has no owner. Do I care? "
Zeng Guofan gave him a pair of couplets in return: "There are countless flowers in the sea that depend on the sky, and the water and mountains know themselves", which euphemistically showed his intention of not being self-reliant.
Prior to this, the court was suspicious of Zeng Guofan, and Empress Dowager Cixi reused the Huai Army headed by Li Hongzhang to restrict Zeng Guofan.
It was Zeng Guofan who kept sober in front of the imperial power and made the famous Zeng family in the future.
Don't be tempted in the face of desire, stay awake in glitz and extravagance, and stay rational in praise and flattery. This is the reason why a person can go to the heights.
The invasion of disease
Life is like a tree, and health is the root.
Someone once used numbers to describe a person's life, in which "1" stands for health, and each "0" after "1" stands for career, money, status, rights, happiness, family, love and house. ...
Without health, everything is zero.
Zeng Guofan, who has always paid attention to his health, failed to survive this robbery. Eight years after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan died in office at the age of 6 1.
Zeng Guofan's physical condition has been poor. When he was young, he was seriously ill for several months. Since then, he has suffered from tinea, eye diseases, tinnitus, dizziness, insomnia, hernia and so on. For a long time, he often goes to see a doctor.
To this end, he wrote down his experience in his diary: "The word' Guang' is a medicine for the heart, and the word' Myrrh' is a medicine for the body. He also put forward "six things to keep fit", and thought that "keeping fit is based on less anger". Only by maintaining physical and mental pleasure can we be strong.
Zeng Guofan warned the children in his suicide note:
"Only by working hard can a person get the respect of God. Those who covet pleasure will be envied by ghosts and gods, so those who work hard will live long and those who are at ease will live short. "
It is intended to encourage future generations to be diligent in fitness to avoid the invasion of diseases.
Gentleman's ze, cut in five.
However, under the influence of Zeng Guofan, over the past 100 years, more than 200 talents have emerged among Zeng's descendants, involving education, art and technology, and there is not a dude in the whole family.
Every disaster is a rebirth, and those who survive these six disasters in the world will be the biggest winners.