A Commentary on Zeng Guofan's Maxims
The heart that loves praise and hates blame is the heart of the vulgar man who frets over gain and loss. If one cannot break through this barrier, all one's learning and talent merely serve to deceive the age and steal a reputation.
Zhiyuan's note: Only if a person never acts in the world, never speaks out, and is accustomed to muddling through, will he hear nothing but praise and never suffer slander or abuse. Zeng Guofan said he himself was "almost rejected by the whole country." The worldly forces that impede social progress—what one might call inertia—are extraordinarily powerful. Anyone who wishes to accomplish something must be mentally prepared to be slandered.
The Book of Changes says: "The laboring and modest junzi has an end; good fortune." The two words "laboring and modest" bring endless benefit. Labor guards against laziness; modesty guards against arrogance. With these two words, what evil will not depart, what good will not arrive?
Zhiyuan's note: Loving ease and haring work, and being arrogant and conceited, are the two great weaknesses of human nature. Most people are both lazy and conceited: unwilling to study diligently or work hard, yet thinking themselves remarkable. Such people are most disagreeable, and their own lives will be wasted.
Having long been in the world, I have grown weary of a certain kind of lenient argument and equivocating atmosphere that nurtures a neither-white-nor-black, neither-painful-nor-itchy world, misleading families and the nation for many a day. When something suddenly stirs me, my coiled gallbladder wells up and surges once more.
Zhiyuan's note: The Confucian Doctrine of the Mean and the Buddhist culture of valuing harmony, when carried to an extreme, become the abuse and vulgarity of muddling through. This abuse promotes so-called lenience and harmony, without distinguishing right from wrong or black from white. The result is that in Chinese society evil forces run rampant, and people of genuine ambition are filled with indignation.
For twenty or thirty years, scholar-officials have grown used to a worried complacency, trailing their long robes and cultivating mincing steps, advocating a neither-white-nor-black, neither-painful-nor-itchy ethos. When they see someone impassioned and indignant speaking out against injustice, they gather and criticize him behind his back, calling him inexperienced, shallow, and fond of showing off. When I formerly served in the six ministries, I witnessed this atmosphere with my own eyes and already hated it to the bone.
Zhiyuan's note: Whenever society is stable, Chinese life tends to slide into worried complacency. "Trailing long robes and cultivating mincing steps" describes the so-called cultured person who feigns elegance, wears broad-sleeved robes, and walks with the solemn dignity of a master—much like performance and disguise. Such people are not only numb themselves to the sufferings of the real world, but when others stand up for those who suffer, they stand aside in the pose of a wise man and mock the champion of justice as naive and ridiculous. I have seen this too deeply. I have written online for many years; every time I make an appeal, I encounter a cohort of such broad-robed men and women—some holding Buddhist beads—who step forward self-righteously to pontificate. I can well understand Zeng Guofan's frame of mind.
Take diligence as the root, and assist it with sincerity. With diligence, though soft one must become strong, though foolish one must become wise. With sincerity, metal and stone can be pierced; spirits and gods can be moved.
Zhiyuan's note: Diligence is the root of both scholarship and being a person. Chinese people are diligent, and the people of Chu (Hubei) especially so. For a person to accomplish anything, the most reliable thing is his own diligent character. Without it, realizing any long-term ideal is very difficult. But diligence alone is not enough; one must also be honest. Only innate honesty, not cunning, is the lasting way to settle oneself in life.
No principle should be stated too high; stated too high, it approaches affectation and falsehood. When I encourage my colleagues and friends, I only ask two things: not to rise late, and not to lie. Though the most shallow and near-to-hand, these already greatly benefit body and mind.
Zhiyuan's note: Grand principles are hard to put into action, just as grand goals are hard to achieve. If the principles one sets for oneself are too difficult to realize, they easily become a form of hypocrisy. So Zeng Guofan and his colleagues encouraged one another only in two things: not sleeping late and not lying. How many people in the world cannot even manage these two. The day's work lies in the morning; many people spend their morning light lingering in bed. Those who rise with the cockcrow are few in the world. Many people loudly proclaim themselves honest folk, yet tell countless lies every day. Most people who lie always use the excuse that "one cannot help oneself in the world," but in truth they simply cannot overcome their own human evil. In the world, speaking truth does not kill anyone; on the contrary, the honest person gains everyone's lasting trust.
Whoever devotes himself to a single art must have insights, and must also have doubts.
Zhiyuan's note: In learning one must be both broadly learned and specialized. Those who focus only on one thing easily become narrow through partisan prejudice. A broad foundation enables one to draw analogies and use stones from other hills to polish one's own jade. But achieving both a broad foundation and a specialty requires efforts beyond what ordinary people make. Yet if one is willing to make that effort, great gains are certain.
A scholar must first have ambition, second have breadth of vision, and third have perseverance. With ambition he will not be content to be low; with vision he knows learning is endless and dare not rest on one small gain; with perseverance there is surely nothing that cannot be accomplished. The three are inseparable.
Zhiyuan's note: A person must have ambition and ideals. In our present society, people with ambition and ideals are often mocked—this is one of the most ridiculous and absurd vulgar cultures. A crowd of philistines, themselves afraid to climb the heights of idealism, envy the idealists; to balance their own inferiority they have fabricated this utterly nonsensical social culture. Only ambition and ideals can lift a person above the vulgar and keep him from sinking low. One must also have vision; only the person with vision knows how vast the world is and how small the self is, so that he will not arrogantly think the little knowledge in his belly is supreme under heaven. Only thus can he seek knowledge with never-ending dissatisfaction. One must also have perseverance: no ideal in the world is easily achieved, and only those who still hold to their ideals after countless failures can reach the end.
The mediocre people of all ages under heaven are all defeated by one word: "laziness." The talented people of all ages under heaven are all defeated by one word: "arrogance."
Zhiyuan's note: Who is the mediocre person? Who is the talented person? Most of us are neither; those of middling ability are the most common in any crowd. I suppose I myself can only be counted among those of middling ability. Even the inch-long edge I have is bought back with sweat. Every day at three or four in the morning, when all is silent and most people are still asleep, I am already sitting at my desk reading. While many people go about socializing and entertainment, I am researching and writing; on holidays I am still treating patients. My tiny achievements require such toil, and those who achieve great things pay far more. What is arrogance? Some people mistake self-confidence for arrogance—that is nonsense. Arrogance is thinking oneself already terrific and refusing to progress. The person who progresses and is self-confident is not arrogant.