Chapter 40 Section 3 What did Zeng Guofan get from the mysterious culture

Although Confucius "did not talk about strange powers and chaotic spirits", in that era, it was impossible for anyone with normal curiosity not to be interested in "weird powers and chaotic spirits".Because of the ever-changing environment and the ever-changing living environment, Chinese people especially hope to interpret the future and variables.However, the achievements of human wisdom at that time lacked the ability to interpret the chaotic universe. In the traditional era, the boundaries between rationality and irrationality, truth and absurdity are not so clear.An irrational atmosphere permeates most of the classics, and almost all theories contain elements of mysterious culture.The Five Elements Theory, which seems absurd from today's perspective, is the common theoretical basis of various schools of philosophy in ancient China, the theoretical basis of ancient medicine and technology, and the common basis of mystics' cultivation and prediction.It can be said that Chinese classical wisdom is all wandering between rationality and irrationality, truth and error, secularity and mystery.It can be said that most of the Chinese-style learning is actually absurd and untenable in terms of system.For example, the theory of Chinese medicine is stuck between metaphysical medicine and theological medicine, and the location of the internal organs is not clearly distinguished. In the "Huangdi Neijing", the internal organs system is compared with the ethical relationship of monarch, minister, father and son in traditional politics.The heart is the emperor, the lungs are the prime minister, the liver is the general, and the gallbladder is the staff...so the tongue is the soul of the heart.

Prescribing medicines in traditional Chinese medicine is also full of fantasy. It pays attention to the monarch, minister, assistant, and envoy. In a prescription, a certain medicine is the monarch, a certain medicine is the minister and general, and a certain medicine is the messenger who leads the way. The whole prescription is a stick. Combat troops, mighty and mighty to kill the focus, very majestic. This is simply performance art. In fact, this is not the case with Confucianism.Dong Zhongshu demonstrated his theory of "interaction between heaven and man" in this way. He said, "Man is a copy of heaven", that is to say, man is a copy of heaven.The sky has five elements, and humans have five viscera; the sky has four seasons, and humans have four limbs; the sky has day and night, and humans have eyes.The sky is warm and cold, and people have likes and dislikes; the sky has cold and heat, and people have happiness and anger.So heaven and man can sense.

If we only look at the theoretical system, Chinese medicine and Confucianism are no different from physiognomy and divination.In fact, for Chinese-style learning, theory is not important.The real value of Chinese-style wisdom lies in the large amount of valuable experience that may have nothing to do with the absurd system structure.For Chinese-style learning, theory is just a basket, and what really matters is what is in the basket.The beauty of Chinese-style culture lies in the fact that "the beauty of using it is all in one mind."Many words of the sages sound empty, rootless and mysterious.Maybe one day suddenly, it resonates with your life experience and makes you enlightened.

We certainly have good reasons to classify Zeng Guofan's "superstition" as "ignorance".A large number of superstitious activities in his life reflect the limitations and backwardness of his thinking.But at the same time, in the relationship between Zeng Guofan and Chinese mysterious culture, we can also draw another conclusion: Zeng Guofan exhausted all the spiritual resources he could get in touch with. Looking back at today's intellectual heights, Zeng Guofan's access to ideological resources in his historical era was actually limited.Although the collections of traditional Chinese classics and history are numerous, their basic spirit is the same.But the world that Zeng Guofan has to face is complex, broad, and constantly flowing.The task on his shoulders is too heavy.He wants to command battles, govern the region, cultivate himself and regulate his family, be a saint inside and a king outside.He wants to restore social order, guide the direction of the country, and rebuild the morals and hearts of the world.For these, the empty dogma of "the monarch, the minister, the father, the son and the son" is not enough.

Zeng Guofan had to go to Qiongbi and down to Huangquan to find all possible spiritual support.He treats the wisdom left by the ancients with the broadest, broadest mind and the most diligent attitude.So one of his biggest characteristics is openness.He has read everything in his life. In addition to the classics and history that the traditional scholar-bureaucrats are devoted to, Zeng Guofan is also very interested in the "text of the case" that ordinary scholar-bureaucrats avoid. "Chronicle of Zeng Guofan" said: When Zeng Guofan was the minister of the Ministry of Industry, he "especially studied the study of Fang Yu, drawing on the left and writing on the right, and he was more tireless in hooking up, and seeking compromises in detail in the major policies of dangerous mountains and rivers, rivers and water conservancy."In his lifetime, he investigated and studied a wide range, and believed that "there are fourteen schools of research on major issues in the world: official system, financial use, salt administration, water affairs, money law, crown ceremony, evening ceremony, and funeral ceremony." , It is called sacrificial ceremony, it is called military system, it is called military law, it is called criminal law, it is called geography, and it is called river canals."This is the obvious difference between him and many scholars of Neo Confucianism at that time.

Zeng Guofan is vigorous, open and all-encompassing.The down-to-earth way of thinking keeps his thinking flowing, sharp and active.Zeng Guofan is like a keen radar, collecting and analyzing all the information he can receive, and extracting useful elements from it.Mysterious culture is also an important part of Chinese traditional culture.The mysterious culture aroused his interest, so it was reasonable.Of course, compared with the classics and history subsets, the nutrition in the mysterious culture is pitifully small.But Zeng Guofan, who is willing to try everything himself, still has to squeeze it out before he can rest assured.

Zeng Guofan is good at absorbing and refining wisdom from trivial real life. It is not so much that Zeng Guofan learned knowledge from physiognomy, but that he occasionally confirmed his own life experience in the process of reading Yi, Xiangfa, and Fengshui. To Zeng Guofan, phoenix, physiognomy and so on are just hooks on which to hang his own wisdom in life.Some people say that Zeng Guofan learned "the principle of surplus news", read the viewpoint of "one divides into two", learned humility and prudence, and read self-improvement. In fact, it should be said that he borrowed these classic lines It just systematizes and clarifies one's own life experience.If Zeng Guofan hadn't had the complicated experience of his own life, he would have nothing to gain by sitting in his study for a lifetime.Zeng Guofan himself summed it up better:

God, human skill and heavenly secrets are intertwined, such as divination, there are yelling words, such as "Zuo Zhuan", there are nursery rhymes, like Buddhist scriptures, there are verses, and their meaning lies between intelligible and unintelligible. Of course, the mystical culture will not give Zeng Guofan any direct benefit in driving away disasters and praying for blessings.From a positive perspective, the mysterious culture should have given him the following enlightenment: On the one hand, the mysterious culture told him that his fate is predetermined, on the other hand, it also revealed to him that the laws of the universe can be solved, and that people's destiny can be controlled by themselves to a certain extent.

The way of thinking of the unity of heaven and man, the mutual generation of yin and yang, the judgment of spirit and spirit in physiognomy, the choice of water source in feng shui theory, and the theory of combining movement and stillness in traditional health preservation, these beneficial ingredients in mysterious culture have great influence on human health. His daily life had a positive impact. In addition, the mysterious culture is beneficial to him, perhaps it is psychological comfort.The element of self-entertainment and self-interpretation in Zeng Guofan's fortune-telling may be greater than the desire to explore the future. What he seeks is actually to relieve psychological tension in anxiety.As for the theory of "fate", it played a huge role in him broadening his mind, looking down on utilitarianism, and transcending through extreme difficulties and pains.