"The Biography of Zeng Guofan" - Zhang Hongjie Baidu Cloud Download

Biography of Zeng Guofan - Preface by Zhang Hongjie

The birth of this book "Biography of Zeng Guofan" can be said to be a process of natural development.

In 1997, shortly after I started writing as an amateur, I wrote an essay entitled "Anatomy of Zeng Guofan", which was later included in my first book published in 2000. My doctoral thesis and postdoctoral thesis were both about Zeng Guofan's economic life. Later, when it was published by Zhonghua Book Company, it was renamed "Settling the Accounts for Zeng Guofan." In addition, I also wrote "The Positive and Negative Sides of Zeng Guofan (I)", "The Positive and Negative Sides of Zeng Guofan (II): Zeng Guofan's Family Letters and Zeng's Family Culture" and "The Positive and Negative Sides of Zeng Guofan (III): Zeng Guofan's Leadership". Looking back now, the person I have written about the most in my twenty-year writing career is Zeng Guofan. Before I knew it, I had written more than one million words and published five books about Zeng Guofan.

Along with these writings, for twenty years, the 30-volume "Complete Works of Zeng Guofan" published by Yuelu Publishing House has always been placed in the most convenient position on my bookshelf, and the family letters and diaries in it have always been my bedside books. I have collected a large amount of research materials and results on Zeng Guofan, the Hunan Army, and the political and social history of the late Qing Dynasty, and completed a block-by-block interpretation of Zeng Guofan from multiple aspects. These are the basis for writing this book "Biography of Zeng Guofan".

The first reason why I am so interested in Zeng Guofan is, as I said in the preface to "The Positive and Negative Sides of Zeng Guofan (Part 1)", that Zeng Guofan's greater significance to China as a cultural entity is the "Chinese power" he demonstrated. Zeng Guofan fully demonstrated the positive value of traditional culture and proved that Chinese culture is dynamic, flexible and accommodating. Among the important officials of the Qing Dynasty, he was the first to advocate "treating foreigners with sincerity." Many Chinese people today have not yet reached this level. Of course, on the other hand, he also proved the limits that traditional culture cannot break through, and this proof is also of great significance. All in all, he gave us a more comprehensive understanding of the culture accumulated by our ancestors over five thousand years. Any construction requires a solid foundation. Since we cannot break away from tradition, we must find an interface.

The second reason is that from the perspective of personal spiritual growth, Zeng Guofan can also provide us with strength. Zeng Guofan's life started from a very low point but ended up at a very high level. Zeng Guofan had an average IQ and took the exam seven times to become a scholar. He had poor physical endowment and suffered from a variety of serious illnesses throughout his life. His background is also very ordinary, and his ancestors have been common people for hundreds of years. When I was young, I had many character flaws, such as poor self-management skills. Through his unremitting personal efforts, he completed a complete transformation and reached the realm of immortality: meritorious service, virtue and words.

This process is very enlightening.

Therefore, Zeng Guofan is a person who is more determined and admired more. Starting from Zeng Guofan, we can have a deeper understanding of the history of traditional Chinese thought and the political and social history of the late Qing Dynasty. From this perspective, it is also necessary to provide readers with a concise biography of Zeng Guofan as an introductory book.

So after nearly twenty years of reading and writing about Zeng Guofan, I integrated my previous puzzle-like writing and research on Zeng Guofan, filled in the gaps, and formed a concise and comprehensive Biography of Zeng Guofan. The purpose is to enable readers to understand Zeng Guofan's life, career and mental journey in a relatively short period of time.

Of course, because of this writing process, this book "Biography of Zeng Guofan" also has a problem, that is, some of the content is repeated in previous works. In the process of writing, I wanted to avoid this repetition, but found it impossible to avoid it. Because there is no new discovery in the materials about the same event, and the conclusion has not changed much, if you just change the way of writing, that is, just reorganize the language, it will not be of much significance.

Therefore, part of the content of this book is repeated in "The Front and Side of Zeng Guofan (Part 1)" and other books. We hope readers will understand. I hope that my work can meet the needs of different readers in this way: with "The Biography of Zeng Guofan" as the skeleton, one can quickly and comprehensively understand Zeng Guofan's life; with "The Front and Side View of Zeng Guofan" and other works as the flesh, one can study Zeng Guofan's multiple aspects in depth and detail.

This biography of Zeng Guofan is different from many biographies, major biographies and critical biographies of Zeng Guofan that have been published before. First, it focuses on presenting Zeng Guofan’s personal mental journey rather than a research-based restoration of his life and events. Second, the focus is on Zeng Guofan's life rather than giving a balanced account. For example, the article only briefly mentions the "suppression" of the Nian Rebellion, while more words are spent on the change in Zeng Guofan's foreign policy ideas and the Tianjin Incident, in an attempt to deeply interpret the reasons why Zeng Guofan chose to become a "traitor".

This book absorbs a lot of previous research results. In the field of Zeng Guofan research, there are Mr. Zhu Dong'an's "Biography of Zeng Guofan", Mr. Lin Gan's "A Great Biography of Zeng Guofan", Mr. Dong Caishi's "A Critical Biography of Zeng Guofan", as well as works by Mr. Xiao Yishan, Liang Shaohui, Dong Conglin, Liu Yijiang, Gong Yuzhen and others, as well as a series of works by Mr. Tang Haoming. In addition, I have benefited greatly from Mr. Weng Fei's research on the relationship between Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, and Mr. Dong Conglin's research on Hu Linyi. There are some other referenced papers that cannot be listed here. During the process of writing this book, my senior from Dongcai University, calligrapher Wang Jiaxin, read the manuscript carefully and provided very valuable suggestions. I would like to express my deep gratitude to him.

"Biography of Zeng Guofan" - Zhang Hongjie's Preface to the Catalog

Volume 1: The Era of Imperial Officials

|Chapter 1| Zeng Guofan's seven painful attempts at imperial examinations

1. Father and son both went to take the exam

2. The Zeng family had a dream of taking the imperial examination

3. The biggest setback in life

4. The clumsier you are, the harder you work.

Chapter 2 | Why should we “learn to be a saint”

1. The inferiority complex and anxiety of Zeng Guofan, a Beijing official

2. At 30, learn to be a saint

3. The beginning of a complete transformation: keeping a diary

Chapter 3 | Amazing Ways to Advance 1. Twelve Rules of Self-Management
2. Make choosing friends your top priority

3. Deeply appreciated by Emperor Daoguang

Chapter 4 | The former rookie in the officialdom 1. The depressed "deputy minister"
2. Offending Emperor Xianfeng

3. Beijing, the most difficult time in life

Volume 2: The Rise of the Hunan Army Chapter 5 | The Shaver’s Shame in Changsha 1. Family Changes While Arriving in Jiangxi
2. Why did you leave the mountain?

3. Becoming the target of public criticism in Changsha

4. Encountered a real setback: Almost got killed by a soldier

Chapter 6 | Why the Hunan Army was so powerful 1. The painstaking efforts and conscience behind the creation of the Hunan Army
2. Game with Emperor Xianfeng

3. Zeng Guofan's first suicide and the Xiangtan victory

4. The Hunan Army team was designed in this way

Chapter 7 | The Hubei Governor Who Was Lost and Gained 1. Treating the Protection of the Chief as a System
2. This sentence changed Zeng Guofan's fate

3. Zeng Guofan’s enemies

4. Why was the Hunan Army’s overall plan disrupted?

Chapter 8 | Jiangxi’s predicament and “great regret and enlightenment” 1. Almost committing suicide after the defeat in Jiujiang
2. Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi

3. The emperor took away his military power

4. After two years of dormancy, the company has undergone a complete transformation

Chapter 9 | The tough nut to crack in Anqing 1. Zeng Guofan’s second appearance
2. Joined forces with Hu Linyi to capture Anqing

3. The Hunan Army’s tactics: “Build a strong camp and fight a stupid battle”

4. Battle of Destiny

Chapter 10 | The grudges with He Guiqing 1. Becoming the most powerful person in the Qing Empire
2. Cixi and Yi launched a palace coup 3. Eliminated He Guiqing's clique

Chapter 11 | The final battle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 1. The famous battle to capture “Tianjing”
2. The most anxious 46 days in Zeng Guofan’s life

3. Shen Baozhen, who repaid kindness with enmity

Chapter 12 | "Let's give up some of the power and position" 1. Two blows from the imperial court
2. Zeng Guoquan’s “Economic Problems”

3. Self-trimming, causing Zeng Laojiu to resign

4. The love-hate relationship with Zuo Zongtang

Volume 3: The Career of a Governor-General Chapter 13 | The Purity and Turbidity of the Governor-General of Liangjiang 1. No grand ceremony allowed, only small gifts accepted
2. The Governor's "Integrity Fund" and "Abolition of Outdated Rules"

3. Zeng Guofan’s “small treasury”

Chapter 14 | Foreigners are also human beings 1. Barbarians actually have integrity
2. Learn from foreigners to defeat them

3. Three distinctive diplomatic concepts

Chapter 15 | Working with his successor Li Hongzhang to "suppress" the Nian Rebellion 1. A brilliant move: cutting off the Hunan Rebellion and retaining the Huai River
2. Zeng Guofan’s talent plan: shaping Li Hongzhang

3. Carry out the river wall strategy to the end

Chapter 16 | Tianjin Incident: How Zeng Guofan became a "traitor" 1. Promoted to Governor-General of Zhili, and severely rectified the officialdom
2. The fuse: the kidnapping of Wu Lanzhen

3. Zeng Guofan investigates the "eye-gouging and heart-stripping" incident

4. Li Hongzhang, the new leader of the frontier

Volume 4 Zeng Guofan’s Last Years Chapter 17 | The Last Leader of the Qing Dynasty 1. This dynasty is beyond redemption
2. Do the last big thing for the country

3. Even when the oil is exhausted, I still work hard and persevere

4. The last idol of traditional Chinese culture

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