Chapter 34 Five contains majesty in the distance

The Anqing shogunate gathered many outstanding talents from all over the country, which made Zeng Guofan, who had always loved and cherished talents, quite proud of it.He has always attached great importance to the education of his children.The eldest son, Jize, is twenty-four years old this year.The father didn't take it seriously when he failed the provincial examination last time, but his son's mood was affected. There were some depressive words in the letter, and the father felt that he owed his son.In the second year of Xianfeng, Jize was fourteen years old. It was the golden age of studying, and unfortunately left the capital.These years, he has led troops to fight, and has left his family alone, not to mention the education of his son.The son is talented and intelligent, and he knows how to make progress, but he has no good teachers in his hometown.If you fail to become a talent because of this, not only will your son be harmed, but the father will also regret it.Now here is a forest of famous teachers, a cloud of good friends, and father and son can get along day and night, and give advice from time to time. It is really a good environment for the class.For this reason, he asked his son to let go of Yan'er's newlywed love and come to Anqing to study as soon as possible.

Half a month ago, Jize arrived in Anqing, accompanied by Jiang Qingcai, the only son of Fifth Uncle Nan.Jiang Qingcai dropped out of school to work in agriculture when he was a child because of poor family circumstances. Later, relying on Zeng Guofan's support, he continued to study intermittently for several years, but in the end he did not make much progress because of his poor foundation. When Jiang Qingcai saw his cousin who became a high official, he wept bitterly, saying that when his father was dying, he repeatedly asked him to come to his cousin to find a job so that he would not suffer in the countryside again.Zeng Guofan had a rough idea of ​​his cousin's abilities, and for the sake of Fifth Uncle Nan, he didn't reject him outright, and he also had a three-thirds intention in his heart.The governor's shogunate paid a lot of money to recruit talented people from all over the world. As long as they have a skill, they will use it according to their ability and will not refuse it. However, they will never accept the incompetent and the mediocre.Zeng Guofan's point of view is: cattle and horses are in the same slot, and mediocrity and heroes are not distinguished, which will inevitably make heroes short of breath and talented scholars' teeth cold.

For half a month, Zeng Guofan had consciously inspected Jiang Qingcai, and he could not handle several things well.Especially when we ate together yesterday, I personally saw him pick out the grains in the rice bowl and throw them under his feet.Zeng Guofan felt very uncomfortable.When he encountered grains when eating, he always removed the chaff, chewed and swallowed the rice inside, and never threw the rice away. A person from a poor background, after only a few years of good life, he forgot his roots. Zeng Guofan saw that Jiang Qing was unbearable in this trivial matter.I thought about this for a long time last night, and finally made up my mind: even though Uncle Nan was kind to him, and even though Jiang Qing was his closest relative, he was determined to send him home.Early this morning, Zeng Guofan chatted with his cousin for half an hour, took out one hundred taels of silver from his savings, and wrote a couplet of "Many things in the world are made of mistakes, and good people half come from suffering" to encourage him , finally made sense of my cousin.

After dealing with this matter, Zeng Guofan began to do his homework that he must do every morning - Lintie.What I came to these days was Liu Yong's "Qing Ai Tang Tie", which was brought by Jize. Last year, Tang Jian, who lived in Shanling Mountain in Ningxiang, passed away at the age of 84.Zeng Guofan was very sad after receiving the obituary, and ordered Jize to go to Ningxiang to express his condolences on his behalf.Tang Jian's nephew handed a copybook to Jize, saying that it was ordered by his uncle before his death, and that this copybook should be left to Zeng Zhitai.This copybook is "Qing Ai Tang Tie".

Zeng Guofan took this copybook and sighed for a long time. Twenty years ago, he studied Cheng-Zhu Confucianism from Master Jinghai and discussed the rise and fall of the previous generation, all of which came to mind one by one, just like yesterday.He had seen this copybook many times in Tang Jian's study.Later, when Tang Jian became an official, the copybook was sent back to his hometown in Shanhua.When Zeng Guofan went home to watch his mother's funeral that year, he borrowed it especially for Shanhua and carefully copied it for a period of time.Liu Yong, named Shi'an, posthumously named Wenqing, was a great scholar in the Qianlong Dynasty, and his calligraphy was the best for a time. "Qing Ai Tang Tie" embodies his calligraphy art achievements in a concentrated way, and is a treasure in copybooks.Zeng Guofan, who knew Tang Jian very well, knew that the teacher solemnly left this copybook to himself as a relic, and he was definitely not just copying and admiring it, but must have other deep meanings.But two years before Master Jinghai's death, he was unable to write and had no last words left behind. What is the deep meaning behind this?For half a month, Zeng Guofan came to "Qing Ai Tang Tie" every day, thinking about it every day, but he still couldn't figure it out.

Today, after two quarters of an hour of quiet copying, he began to meditate on the copybook again.Liu Shi'an's calligraphy looks interesting and natural at first glance, with the artistic conception of small bridges and flowing water, distant mountains and light ink. On closer inspection, the brushstrokes are vigorous, and the characters are majestic, containing the heroic spirit of the Yellow River and Yangtze River.He went over the post word for word from beginning to end, and after reading it, he took a bird's-eye view of the entire page.Suddenly, as if a ray of sunlight had shot in, his heart lit up.He hurriedly took out his diary and wrote down this unusual epiphany today: Reading Liu Wenqing's "Qing Ai Tang Tie", he got a little bit of natural interest, and then he realized that there are two great realms of literati's skills, one is majestic and the other is distant.Composition is natural, poetry is natural, and writing is also true.It is especially valuable if it can contain majesty and wonder in the distance.

After finishing writing, I read it lightly again, and drew a few circles under the sentence "Han Xiong Qi Yu Dan Yuan".He admired this sentence very much, and thought it was a great discovery.For a moment, thoughts spring up, unstoppable.He continued to write: In the past, when Mr. Yao discussed the way of ancient prose, there were those who obtained the beauty of yang and rigidity, and those who obtained the beauty of yin and softness.However, in the gentleness and Yuanyi, there must be a firm quality and a majestic spirit in it, so that it can stand on its own. After thinking about it, I wrote it down again: the way to write calligraphy must be masculine, masculine and feminine, with strength but with dangerous momentum, without effort but with a natural flavor, with effort like Changli's writing, without focus like Yuanming's poems, both Queyi is not possible, and it is like the beauty of masculinity and beauty of femininity that writers call.

He felt that the meaning was not enough, so he added another paragraph: Generally speaking, when writing calligraphy and ancient poetry, there must be a strange energy in the chest, but when expressing it in pen and ink, it must be restrained and covered, not to be exposed, but to be deep. Zeng Guofan read these paragraphs together, and felt that his research on characters, poems, and texts today suddenly entered a new realm.Is this the deep meaning of Master Jinghai?All his life, Master Jing Hai focused on the national economy and the people's livelihood, and on cultivating students' personality. He always regarded poetry, calligraphy and painting as the last skills; but he has been the governor in the past few years, leading 100,000 troops, and he is no longer a scholar who dances and writes in Hanyuan.Obviously, Master Jing Hai's intention is not here.Zeng Guofan left the desk and paced slowly in the house.After walking a few steps, he suddenly understood.As the saying goes, writing is like a person, and writing is like a person. Composition and writing are interlinked. Since writing can embody majesty in indifference, and writing can contain masculinity in femininity, why can't we be like this?Zeng Guofan understood and became happy. At the end of the diary, he quickly added two sentences: "Containing strength is stronger than weakness, and embodying Han in Huang Lao. This is a good state for being a man and an official." Like a brilliant painter Finally completed the last and most proud stroke, the whole picture is dazzling in an instant, Zeng Guofan feels that today's diary is also full of brilliance because of these two sentences.He thought to himself that the far-reaching significance of Master Jinghai's post might lie in this.

Today's morning was so meaningful, Zeng Guofan was in a good mood, remembering that his son had been in Anqing for so long, and he hadn't had a good conversation with him. After dinner, he specially asked his son to come to the study. Zeng Jize's body is thin, not as thick as his father's when he was young, his facial features are the same as his father's, but the lines are not as tough as his father's, and appear softer.After his son sat down, Zeng Guofan said, "I've been very busy all along, and I didn't say a few words to you. When the day came, I forgot to ask you. The boat you took after Wuchang was my original boat. There is a handsome flag on board, is this flag displayed along the way?"

"No." Ji Ze replied respectfully, "My uncle saw it and said he wanted to hang it up, but I didn't agree." "Oh, yes. Let me ask you another question. I wrote a letter asking you not to disturb the local civil and military. Did you do it?" "I would like to obey my father's order. All civil and military banquets from places along the way will be declined, and I will only rest for one night in Peng Shilang's yamen at Hukou." "I want it, I want it." Zeng Guofan nodded, "San Jia, I have told you again and again that I don't want my descendants to be high-ranking officials, I only want to be gentlemen who understand things. It's not important if you fail the township examination. Is it to understand the truth in the book, have you felt more comfortable for a while?"

"When my son was at home, he read his father's handwritten letter, and he became much more cheerful. This time, he traveled thousands of miles to Anqing, and saw the beautiful mountains and rivers along the way, and his heart was greatly expanded." Zeng Jize smiled happily, with a childlike innocence on his face, which made Zeng Guofan very pleased. "This is what the ancients said, not only to read thousands of volumes of books, but also to travel thousands of miles. Su Ziyou said it well: Tai Shigong travels the world, visits famous mountains and rivers around the world, and makes friends with heroes from Yanzhao, so his writing is sparse. It is quite strange. Once the mind is broadened, one's knowledge will naturally increase. Fame is always a matter of life, and it cannot be obtained by force. Only sages can learn it. I want you to copy the portraits of thirty-two sages. Here it is. These thirty-two sages, do you remember them all in your heart? Count them out for me." "Wen Wang, Zhou Gong, Confucius, Mencius, Zuo Qiuming, Zhuangzi, Sima Qian, Ban Gu, Zhuge Liang, Lu Zhi, Fan Zhongyan, Sima Guang, Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai, Zhu Xi, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Xu Shen, Zheng Xuan, Du You, Ma Duanlin, Gu Yanwu, Qin Huitian, Yao Nai, Wang Niansun." Every time Jize counted one, Zeng Guofan would pull down a finger, and when he counted "Wang Niansun", it was exactly thirty-two.Satisfied, Zeng Guofan said: "I wrote an article "Portraits of Sages", you take it and read it carefully, and use these thirty-two sages as examples to motivate yourself from time to time." "Yes." Ji Ze replied, his respectful and serious expression was similar to Zeng Guofan's when he received the imperial edict. Zeng Guofan asked his son about the funeral and burial of his uncle and grandfather, as well as the diet and daily life of his mother, fourth uncle and aunts. "Ji Yao got married this spring, and I, like Ji Jing, only paid two hundred taels of silver to go home. The Chen family didn't talk empty words, did they?" "The Chen family didn't say anything, and others didn't believe it. They said that a university scholar married a daughter with only two hundred taels of silver as a dowry. How can there be such a strange thing in the world!" Jize smiled and said, "The day before the second sister got married, she A pair of gold ear picks from my house was stolen by a thief." "Where does Ji Yao have such a thing?" Zeng Guofan frowned and asked. "It was my mother who secretly beat it for her. It only weighed seven qian, and it cost twenty taels of silver. Because of the gold ear digging being stolen, my mother didn't sleep well for three nights and shed tears. When the news spread, everyone It is said that the wife of a university scholar is so sad for digging a gold ear, which shows that there is not much gold and silver in the family. Therefore, the married daughter of two hundred taels of silver believed it." "From now on, Ji Chen, Ji Chun, and Ji Fen's marriages will all be based on this, and they will all be two hundred taels." After a while, Zeng Guofan asked again, "What books have you brothers read recently?" "Ji Hong and Mr. Deng are reading "Erya", and I am reading "Hanshu"." "I love to read the four books "History", "Han", "Zhuang" and "Han" most in my life. I am very pleased that you can read "Hanshu." Zeng Guofan picked up a copy of "Hanshu" from the desk I flipped through, "No matter how busy I am, I insist on reading ten pages of history books every day. You have nothing to do now, you have to read at least seven or eighty pages. There are two difficulties in reading "Han Shu". There are many sentences that are difficult to understand. You must first master elementary school, exegesis, and ancient Chinese rhetoric before you can read "Han Shu" thoroughly." "What the father taught. My son didn't have a solid foundation in elementary school and ancient prose and rhetoric." "Mr. Qian Jingshi, Yu Yinfu, Mo Zicai and others are all proficient in elementary school and exegesis. If you have any questions, you can ask them for advice. Li Chunzhai and Wu Zhifu are about the same age as you, but their foundation in ancient Chinese is deeper than yours. More, you have to let go of the eldest son's airs and get along with them more." "My son has been studying for more than ten years, but he always seems to have not grasped the secrets of reading. Father, is there any secret to reading?" Zeng Jize has been thinking about this for several years, and today he can ask his father in person. "There is no trick to reading, it just lies in reading and thinking deeply, but it is not true at all." Zeng Guofan thought for a while and said, "In my opinion, the trick to reading is to read, read, write, and write in close cooperation. One day is indispensable. I seem to have told you that before." "I also want to ask my father to give me some advice." Jize stared at his father intently.The shape of these eyes is very similar to that of his father, but they obviously lack the majestic look of his father, but appear soft and gentle. They are inherited from his mother, Mrs. Ouyang. "Look, it refers to contemplation, for example, you read "Historical Records", "Korean", "Jinsilu", "Book of Changes" last year, and this year you read "Hanshu". Reading refers to recitation aloud, such as "Four Books" The classics of "Poetry" and "Zuo Zhuan", "Selected Works of Zhaoming", the poems of Li Du, Han Su, and the essays of King Han Ouzeng, you can't get a grand overview of them unless you recite them aloud, and you can't explore their profound rhyme without reciting them secretly. For example, a wealthy family accumulates: reading books is like doing foreign trade, and the profit is triple; The land can be defended. The two cannot be neglected. As for writing and writing—" "Isn't writing and composing the same thing?" Jize interjected. "It's not the same thing." Zeng Guofan said to his son gently, "Writing means copying. For good texts, sentences and chapters, not only read, read, but also write. Copy it once, and remember it better. Zhenxing Zhuanli, you like it, you must not stop for a day, you must be good, and you must be fast. I have suffered a lot because of my slow handwriting in my life. You must strive to be agile. If you can write 10,000 regular scripts a day, it will be almost enough. " "I sit still all day long, and I can only write eight thousand." "Practice hard, you can do it. Luo Boyi can copy memorials, he can copy 12,000 a day, and he can play Go with me at night." Zeng Guofan took out an ordinary memorial that Luo Boyi had just copied and showed it to his son, "Luo Boyi not only copied Quickly, without any mistakes, I copied a memorial without changing a single word, and I paid him thirty taels of silver a month, which was about the same as other staff members. Some people were not convinced, saying that Luo Boyi was young and had no other advantages, that's all He can take this much silver. I said, his strength is worth thirty taels of silver. He uses people like tools. This strength is very useful to me, so I will use him more.” Zeng Jize looked at the memorial carefully, and found that the handwriting was really good, all of them in small script, dignified and beautiful, which is amazing.He thought to himself that there are indeed many talents here. "As for writing, it refers to writing poems and essays, writing essays in four books, writing test post poems, writing verses, writing ancient and modern style poems, writing ancient prose, and writing parallel style essays. All of these must be paid attention to and tested one by one. Poetry should be established before the age of 20 or 30, and it will be difficult to improve after 30. Young people are not afraid of ugliness, they must have the spirit of being aggressive. If you don’t try it at this time, you will become older and more unwilling to do it. .” "That's what my father taught." Ji Ze said, thinking to himself: "No wonder fourth uncle never writes poems and essays, and whenever he has a social occasion, he always pushes it to me. Probably because he didn't establish a scale when he was young, but now that he is old, he is afraid of being ugly. reason." "Father, the four-character tricks you taught just now have helped my son go astray. My son reads books on a daily basis, and often feels that he understands what is said in the book, but when he thinks about it carefully, he can't understand it." I don’t know why, I don’t know why?” "Your confusion, I often encountered when I was young." Zeng Guofan put on his usual posture again, stretched out his right hand and combed his beard slowly, "Zhu Zi taught people to read, and he once said eight words: open-minded and inclusive. Self-experience. Open-minded, easy to understand, that is, no prejudices, open-minded. The word culvert is the most difficult to recognize. I didn’t experience it until I was around forty. The so-called culvert is like spring rain to moisten flowers, clear canals to irrigate rice. The rain Moisturizing flowers, if it is too small, it will be difficult to see through, if it is too large, it will be separated, and if it is moderate, it will moisten and nourish the sap. If the rice for clearing the canal is too small, it will wither, if it is too large, it will damage waterlogging, if it is moderate, it will be cultivated and vigorous. Swimmers are like Fish swim, people wash their feet. Cheng Zi said that fish jump in the deep, lively and splashing on the ground. Zhuang Zi said that watching fish in Haoliang, knowing that it is not joy, this fish is happy in water. Zuo Taichong has a sentence of "washing feet for thousands of miles", Su Zizhan has a poem about lying down at night and washing his feet, and a poem after taking a bath, which also means that human nature is happy with water. To be good at reading, one must regard books as water, and regard this heart as rice, flowers, fish, and feet, which can be roughly understood. Observation means to put oneself in to experience and observe. It is like the first chapter of "Mencius Li Lou", "There is no way above, and there is no way to keep below." When I was young, I didn't have much experience when I read these two sentences. Know that those above must follow the Tao, and those below must abide by the law. If everyone believes in the Tao and follows the heart but not the law, then the subordinates will be superior. I think you have little experience in reading, Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to comprehension and understanding of the second language.” Zeng Guofan's detailed instructions to his son are entirely based on his own personal experience over the decades of studying, and they are extremely inspiring to his son.Zeng Jize believes that this is the part that he has benefited the most from the long talk with his father today. He is determined to review the books he has read in the past according to what his father taught him. "Two days earlier, Uncle Li Ren asked me to write a preface for his translation of "The Elements of Geometry", which stumped me." After a while, Zeng Guofan said to his son, "I have three shames in my life: I have no knowledge in astronomy and arithmetic. Knowing that even though stars do not know the five latitudes, this is the first shame; doing things without beginning and end is the second shame; practicing calligraphy can not be integrated into one's own body, and it is slow and wasteful, which is the third shame. Now that you are over fifty, you must It is impossible to wash away these three shames, and I hope to pin it on you brothers. This preface of Uncle Ren is up to you to write. By writing the preface, you can learn astronomy and calendar from Uncle Ren, Xuecun, Ruoting and others. Forget it. They are all the most prestigious experts in the country, and if they learn it well, they will wash away this shame for their father. Can you do it?" "My son will definitely work hard to do it." Looking at his father's loving and expectant eyes, Zeng Jize bit the bullet and agreed. "Okay, it's late at night, go to bed, you have to get up early tomorrow." Zeng Guofan stood up as he spoke, and Zeng Jize then stood up, saluted his father, and turned to go out. "A third!" Zeng Guofan called to his son, "I told you repeatedly in the letter that your problem is that you behave too lightly and speak too quickly. You are required to behave calmly and speak curtly. Your speech tonight is not bad, but Walking is still buoyant, it hasn't changed at all." Jize bowed his hands and accepted his father's lesson.Zeng Guofan stared at the clothes his son was wearing, and said, "Your clothes are too bright, and you will have to change them tomorrow. The children of all aristocratic families have the same clothing, food and daily life as poor people, so they can be expected to become great talents; if they are contaminated Wealthy habits are hard to hope for. I am now a general, and all the clothes add up are not worth three hundred taels of silver. You brothers must stick to the frugal style of my family for generations. This is also the way to cherish blessings. Do you understand?" "Understood!" Jize replied respectfully. "Go to sleep!" Zeng Guofan gently waved to his son. After Jize's back completely disappeared into the night, he closed the doors and windows and walked into the bedroom.Chen Chunyan brought a bucket of hot water and helped him take off his shoes and socks.He dipped his feet into the moderately hot water, rubbed them slowly, and thought of his ninth younger brother who went east to Jinling: I haven't heard from him for half a month. Where is he camping tonight?