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"Biography of Zeng Guofan" Author: Zhang Hongjie Publisher: Democracy and Construction Press
"Biography of Zeng Guofan" Author: Zhang Hongjie Publisher: Democracy and Construction Press
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Introduction · · · · · ·
Zeng Guofan, who had no distinguished family background and the worst talent among his contemporaries in the late Qing Dynasty, was promoted to the position of Governor-General of Liangjiang, Governor-General of Zhili, and Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace. He surpassed everyone in the complex changes of the times and achieved the greatest success. He was hailed as the "first minister of the Qing Dynasty's revival", and finally escaped unscathed. His life experience, both in the past and now, gives people special inspiration.
He came from an ordinary family, and his family hadn't produced a scholar for five or six hundred years. He could be described as a typical small-town youth.
He had an average IQ and took seven attempts to pass the examination, but he successfully passed the imperial examination with his hard work and entered the Hanlin Academy. He advocated clumsiness throughout his life and won by being solid rather than clever.
He went to Beijing with great ambitions, but when he met the national elites, he found that his knowledge was narrow and his ideas were vulgar, and he fell into inferiority and anxiety. At the age of 30, he was determined to learn to be a saint, studied classics, made friends, and improved his self-management ability. He was promoted rapidly during his time in Beijing.
He was good at seizing and creating opportunities. When the country was in chaos, he founded the Hunan Army and led the heroes. He fought against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but was defeated repeatedly. He even committed suicide by jumping into the river twice and fell into desperate situations many times. At the age of 47, he was abandoned by the emperor and fell into the trough of his life.
After two years of self-reflection in his hometown, he finally came to his senses. After returning to the countryside, he changed his ways and not only eliminated his political enemies, but also defeated his old military enemy, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, by "building a strong camp and fighting a stupid battle", and became a high-ranking official.
He had a long-term vision and was able to assess the situation. Faced with the gap between them and foreigners, he was the first to abandon backward ideas, advocate the Westernization Movement, and learn advanced foreign technology in order to defeat them.
Every step he took became the cornerstone of his life advancement, and he eventually went from a fool to a saint, becoming the last leader of the Qing Dynasty and the last idol of Confucian culture.
Open this book and see how Zeng Guofan, with a clumsy spirit, interprets the path to upgrading for a continuous striver.
About the Author · · · · · ·
Zhang Hongjie, Mongolian, was born in Liaoning in 1972. He is a well-known historian, a bachelor of economics from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, a doctor of history from Fudan University, a postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University, and works at the Institute of Qing History of Renmin University of China. He has written "Biography of Zeng Guofan", "The Front and Side of Zeng Guofan", "Seven Faces of the Ming Dynasty", "Sitting on the World", "The Evolution of Chinese National Character", etc. He has lectured on "Success and Failure of Qianlong" on "Lecture Room", and served as the chief writer of large-scale documentaries "Confucius", "Eight Hundred Years of Chu State", and "The Reform Movement of 1898".
