Zeng Guofan shouldered great pressure with his weak body and accomplished so many challenging tasks. It can be said that his regimen has played a great role. It is said that the average life expectancy of human beings in that era of the Qing Dynasty was 33 years old, and Zeng Guofan lived to be over 60 years old, which was considered a long life at that time.
Zeng Guofan's regimen was improved by his own personal experience and repeated efforts. Most of his family letters and diaries also mention health preservation, which is summed up in three words by modern methods: body, mind and spirit, which respectively represent the aftercare of the body, psychological emotions and spiritual energy.
First, the method of fitness.
Zeng Guofan was in poor health when he was young. It was not until 1845 escaped from lung disease that he began to recover seriously and study the way of keeping in good health.
Zeng Guofan learned from his own experience that "a strong man is like a rich man, and he becomes rich by abstaining from luxury;" The infirm, like the poor, should save themselves. " Zeng Guofan is obviously the latter. And his fitness method is: "sleep and eat constantly, sleep and wash feet every night, and walk 3000 steps after two meals." "
Health care begins with health preservation, and the body is the material basis and carrier of life. If the body is not well maintained, it is extravagant to make achievements, but it is also necessary to keep the physical pain.
Mao Zedong likes reading Zeng Guofan's letters very much. He mentioned in the article "Sports Research" that he also learned that "Zeng's foot washing after sleeping took a thousand steps and benefited a lot".
Second, the method of nourishing the heart.
Restraining anger and desire is the method of nourishing the heart in Zeng Guofan's health secret.
Heart is not a heart, but a person's psychology, and the external expression of emotion is also the expression of intelligence.
"Heart" is a comprehensive reaction and feeling that the human sensory system collects information into the central nervous system.
The "heart" regulates the body through the nervous system and endocrine system.
Zeng Guofan distinguished anger, desire and stubbornness very clearly, and the three emotions are often mixed together, which is difficult for modern people to distinguish. Behind greed and anger is stubbornness. Only by retaining stubbornness and getting rid of anger and too much desire can we achieve the goal of making contributions.
It is the perfect combination of Zeng Guofan's health preservation and doing things that a gentleman punishes evil and promotes good, self-denial and reciprocity, and retention of stubbornness.
Modern people are generally impetuous, saying what they say and doing what they do can not be idle for a moment. If you are not sure, even if you have found the Peach Blossom Garden, you still can't appreciate the fun of Taoyuan.
Third, the method of nourishing the spirit.
On the basis of keeping in good health and nourishing the heart, Zeng Guofan continued to strive for perfection and put forward another way of keeping in good health: "sedentary". It is Zeng Guofan's method to cultivate "God" and noble spirit through meditation and meditation.
God is an aura, an energy, or a realm. In modern knowledge, it is a person's subconscious thoughts and ideas, which will directly control people's thoughts and is a hidden spiritual energy. Subconscious instinct is a person's "God".
Zeng Guofan wrote a couplet when he was 48 years old: "Feed a spring, feed two poor bones." Used to encourage yourself, but also a summary of your self-cultivation. This pair of couplets means energetic and clear-headed; At the same time, people should have backbone and ambition to realize their ambitions.
Third, the philosophy system of life.
Body, mind and spirit are interrelated and mutually influenced life philosophy systems. In the process of cognition and recovery of health care, Zeng Guofan gradually integrated the three levels of body, mind and spirit into one, and wrote "Essential Words of Health Care": "The mind wants to be determined, the god wants to be determined, and the body wants to be determined." It means that only when people have inner stability can their spirit be stable; Only when the spirit is stable can the body be stable.
No matter how busy the military affairs are and how prosperous the Ministry is, Zeng Guofan will practice calligraphy and play Go in his spare time. These two hobbies have become the best way for him to feel at ease.
Zeng Guofan's way of keeping in good health is good, but there is also helplessness. The death of a generation of important officials in desperation is his liberation and the most tragic ending of that era, but his philosophy of "body, mind and spirit" is undoubtedly worth learning from later generations.