Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Twenty-Four Years of Daoguang: The Days when the Leaders Were Frustrated

On the first day of the first lunar month, I was angry twice for the coachman. At the beginning of Yin, Yinzheng went to the court to celebrate, and at the beginning of Chen, he retreated from the court.Go to the guild hall to worship the gods, and return to the apartment.After dinner, I paid a visit to the guests. At the beginning of the unitary period, I left and returned. I was angry with the coachman twice a day. Zeng Guofan was promoted to serve as the school manager of Wenyuan Pavilion.I haven't heard that this official has any good things, but he is a leader anyway, so Zeng Guofan is good at temper, and on the first day of the new year, he got angry with the coachman twice.

Then he started scolding his wife. On February 19th, I had a statement with my wife Early, learn Chinese characters one hundred.I have a responsibility to speak with my wife.Visit guests five or six times.At the beginning of the year, I went to Huiwentang for a banquet, visited three families, returned, and slept the earliest at night. Speaking of Zeng Guofan, it's really not a thing. His wife, Ouyang, hasn't had a good day since she married him.The most tragic thing was that when giving birth to his daughter, Zeng Guofan couldn't even afford to hire a midwife, so he let his wife deliver the baby by himself, and bit off the umbilical cord of the fetus by himself.His wife didn't seem to have blamed him for these things, but he was so lucky that he still blamed his wife.

There is another thing, Zeng Guofan has hidden us in his diary, at the moment when he is diligent in cultivating virtue and not being feminine, his wife gave birth to two daughters for him: Zeng Jiyao and Zeng Jichen, plus the eldest daughter Zeng Jijing, Zeng Guofan now has a son and three daughters. Just like that, he still has the face to scold his wife, what do you call this person? Since then, Zeng Guofan's diary has become shorter and shorter, and it is so short that it is outrageous: On February 26, I went to He Danqi's house for a class meeting. Early, learn Chinese characters one hundred.Visit several.When he arrived at He Danqi's house, Shen Zhengsan.Talk with Shutang and Yunxian for a long time.Xuan and Yun play two games of chess.

On the third day of April, Xiaocen came early to play Go together. On the eighth day of April, I played chess with Yunxian. Basically, Zeng Guofan lived a muddleheaded life during this period, either playing chess with Ouyang Xiaocen for a day, or playing chess with Guo Songtao for a day, without any serious business. On April 16th, Yinzheng went to Zhengda Guangming Hall for examination. To Zhengda Guangming Hall examination difference.Yinzheng enters the arena. The titles of "Four Books" range from "It's what you haven't got" to "Everything you can do".The title of the scriptures is "The humble one is the most respectful, and the one who keeps his position is also."The title of the poem "Fu gets the monarch and his ministers in harmony" gets the official character.Three quarters before it was completed, the three arts were finished, and the writing was completed at the beginning of Xu.On that day, Li Ruqiao and Tong Yuan were found in the house and handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment.It is a pity that Li Ze used to walk in the upper study room, and was also a scholar of Shandong.

Finally, something interesting happened. The civil servant exams started again. This time Zeng Guofan still did well in the exam, but there were two other candidates, one named Li Ruqiao and the other named Tong Yuan. These two unlucky people were caught on the spot because of cheating in the exam. , sent to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment. To Zeng Guofan's regret, Li Ruqiao, the previous candidate, used to walk in the upper study room.What is the concept of walking in the study room? It is because your level is too high. If your level is too low, it is impossible to go to the study room. Going to the chicken coop is almost the same.Moreover, Li Ruqiao had served as Shandong Xuezheng, an official position roughly equivalent to the director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Education.

The director of the Education Department, walking in the study room, actually wrote a cheat sheet when he was about to take the exam.It's fine to write a cheat sheet, but he was caught and handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment. What do you think is this? In the final analysis, it is because there are too many entertainments and temptations in the officialdom, and it is really not easy for people who have entered the official career to maintain their previous vigorous learning momentum.However, this decadent Qing Empire always had trouble with the leaders, and the leaders were deflated in the end.

April 23: Yan got up, called on guests, and went to the guild hall for breakfast.Go to several houses, Shen Zhenggui, and eat snacks.Go back to Jinghaizhang, talk for a long time, and return at the beginning of Xu.That night, during the second game of Go with Yunxian, I became dizzy, and I will never play chess again. During this period of time, there should be no more troubles for Zeng Guofan, so he let himself go, played chess fiercely, and played chess with Guo Songtao to the point of dizziness.So he gritted his teeth and announced that he would quit chess. The day after he officially quit chess, his diary reads as follows:

April 24: Yan Qi, write small characters after dinner.rain.Write till the end.Very rainy.Wen Sanding Jiaxin, Shen Chu, and Yunxian Go, followed the same path as yesterday. Look at what Zeng Guofan did, while solemnly announcing his quitting chess, he continued to play chess.And the chess is getting more and more violent: April 27: Yan Qi played a game with Yunxian after dinner. Zeng Guofan finally realized that something was wrong after quitting chess to such an extent that he actually played chess all day. What's the problem? Zeng Guofan believes that the problem lies with his wife Ouyang.

April 28: Wake up early, read twenty pages, and turn the door to be disrespectful. Before quitting chess, Zeng Guofan suddenly blamed himself for being "disrespectful" and this blame is a bit interesting. The reason why Fang Kai was disrespectful in this incident was because it happened in the morning.It was he who was reading the book well, and suddenly got impulsive, and then things happened.If things happen at night, it cannot be regarded as disrespectful to the house door, at most it is only when the house door is in progress. This kind of thing is quite interesting now, but it was not so serious at the time.But the problem is, Zeng Guofan found himself a little out of control.In addition, Zeng Guofan had a lot of babies in his family, and there were no necessary precautions at that time, so Zeng Guofan was a little annoyed by this impulsive behavior.

After that, Zeng Guofan began to grit his teeth and swear viciously against the sky, which was not quite like Zeng Guofan. On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, I swear today: If I play chess again, I will never lose the fragrance of books. Get up early and write a happy letter to Li Shiwu.After dinner, if you have nothing to do, and your mind hangs in the air, you will know that it cannot be settled and has been quiet for a long time.Not yet, Xu Shiquan came to play a few games with the same Go.After Shi Quan left, I felt dizzy and would never play chess because of the precept.The oath said: If you play chess again, you will never lose the fragrance of books.Talked with Shu and Jun at night, and wrote a fan.

Zeng Guofan finally lost his temper. He vowed that if he played chess again in the future, he would never lose his scholarly reputation. This oath has no practical significance to others, but to Zeng Guofan, it is a very important matter.You know, his life and career are based on books, and his current occupation is to teach Shuji scholars to study in the Imperial Academy, which is equivalent to the current doctoral tutor.He vowed to never leave the book, which shows that the situation is very serious. It's useless if the situation is serious. Zeng Guofan didn't quit Go until his death, and the more he played Go, the more crazy he became.When he started the decisive battle with Hong Xiuquan of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Go became his only way to relieve stress. If Go hadn't helped him, he would have been crushed by Hong Xiuquan long ago. Moreover, his oath was not fulfilled. But once a person opens his mouth to swear, it is like drinking cold water, gurgling, the more he swears, the smoother he is, and the more he swears, the more addictive he is.So Zeng Guofan continued to swear poisonously: On the sixth day of August, think carefully about the family training regulations. Get up early, send people to listen to the announcement, and write a hundred words.Write accounts after dinner.Chen Daiyun came and talked for a long time.Go to Shen Zhengshi.In the second half of the day, think carefully about the family training regulations.One hundred words of family motto at night, I swear that there will be no serious reason in the future, and I will write a hundred words every day. If I don’t, I will never lose the fragrance of books. This poisonous oath is Zeng Guofan's threat to write one hundred words a day. If he can't do it, he will be a scholar forever. He will make his Zeng family illiterate for generations and pay the price for him not writing. We know that he failed to fulfill this oath.Fortunately, this oath was not fulfilled again. Even the poisonous oath can't be fulfilled, so what else is there to do?The more he wrote in Zeng Guofan's diary, the more he lost his emotions. When he wrote in November of this year, he stopped abruptly and couldn't continue writing. Chronicle of Zeng Guofan involved in this chapter: Daoguang twenty-four years, 1844, 34 years old. In August, Guo Songtao invited Jiang Zhongyuan to see him. The two hit it off immediately and became teachers and students. In December, he was transferred to be a servant of the Imperial Academy.