In the third year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan was determined to create the Xiang Army. How to choose soldiers? Zeng Guofan decided to "choose scholars and lead Shan Nong". People used to think that the strength of the spirit was far greater than the strength of the body. With a firm belief, a person can show amazing courage and energy.
One of the important reasons why the Xiang army has super fighting capacity is that it has formed a team with souls with Neo-Confucianism as its officers. Zeng Guofan set a standard of 12 for the army-ethics, bureaucracy, multi-organization and less talking. Among the literati who are not bureaucrats, Zeng Guofan prefers fools to wise men.
He firmly believes that only the sincerity in the world can overcome the falsehood in the world. Only the clumsiness of the world can overcome the cleverness of the world, and it is the most expensive to push sincerity rather than politics.
Set up camp in a down-to-earth manner and fight a dull battle. Zeng Guofan is not only stupid in employing people, but also stupid in fighting wars. He once advocated static braking, which has always been based on ancient times. Zeng Guofan believes that when the two sides fight, the Lord is waiting for the other side to attack, and the guest is taking the initiative to attack. The Lord has advantages and the guest has disadvantages. Therefore, when fighting, you must be the host, not the guest, and be good at changing guests.
Why is the world in chaos? Because too many smart people cheat each other. The final success of the project depends on two words, one is persistence and the other is sincerity.
002 "Patient" Zeng Guofan
Zeng Guofan's mediocre talent is not only reflected in IQ, but also in his body. At the age of 30, Zeng Guofan wrote himself in his diary and often had tinnitus. If you have a little brain, you will feel dizzy, tired and often have a serious illness. Long-term mental stress was too great, which led to Zeng Guofan's stomach trouble. At the age of 32, Zeng Guofan felt that his tongue was shorter than usual and his speech was ineffective, which was an early sign of stroke. At the age of 35, he got a skin disease, which plagued him all his life.
Although Zeng Guofan's life and mood sometimes fall into a trough, he has not relaxed his demands on himself, and has been firm and brave on the road of learning saints.
In the seventh year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan was worried about the country and the people and was unhappy. At this time, he began to suffer from insomnia because of diseases and eye diseases caused by overwork. In the twenty-third year of Daoguang, when he was thirty-two, his vision was blurred. At the age of 60, Zeng Guofan suddenly lost his sight in one eye. Years of hard work led to Zeng Guofan's illness getting worse, including high blood pressure, dizziness and backache.
Through the introduction of Zeng Guofan's physical condition, we can see that Zeng's life was not easy. With these diseases, he completed the three immortal undertakings of "establishing morality, making contributions and making statements". His life is a typical small horse-drawn cart. Zeng Guofan is still a strong man. He regarded himself as a hero all his life, and was ashamed of cowardice. If a person wants to gain a foothold in this world, he must rely on self-improvement, not only to fight against the enemy, but also to fight against himself.
Zeng Guofan has been saying that people can't be defeated, and no one escapes. All the mediocrity in the world, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, have been defeated by a lazy word. He hardly gave himself a day off in his life. There are five diligent officials, namely, body diligent, eye diligent, hand diligent, mouth diligent and heart diligent. Working hard and living up to every day given by God is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Zeng Guofan bears the workload of 10 times that of ordinary people and exerts the ability of 10 times that given by heaven, which forces him to be responsible for the country and the nation.
In addition, Zeng Guofan also emphasized the way of keeping in good health, and summed up the eight-character formula of keeping in good health-the method of keeping in good health, which is greater than punishing anger, stifling desire, eating less and moving more. He also mentioned that getting up early is also a way to keep fit and protect the family. People who get up early are people who live long. In order to relax and relieve mental stress, he tried to sit still and relieve symptoms by cultivating his mind.
Although Zeng Guofan pays attention to maintenance, he still treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War consumed great energy in his life. In his later years, Zeng Guofan was ill almost everywhere. Even so, Zeng Guofan's motto is "do your best, and die before you die", and he insists on handling official business every day and keeps reading. Life goes on, and I have pushed myself to the limit.
Zeng's family has a gene for cerebrovascular disease. Zeng Guofan had several signs of stroke, but he was fearless in the face of death. Until the end of my life, I still didn't stop my intensive work or my introspection. On the day before his death, Zeng still insisted on sorting out the literature and reading the bibliography. It can be said that Zeng Guofan exhausted the last drop of strength for this country.