For family education, the world admires Zeng Guofan. Let's approach Zeng Guofan's family style, family precepts and ways of teaching children. Zeng Guofan (18 1 1 year165438+1October 26th-1March 872 12), formerly known as Zicheng, was named Bohan. China was a politician, strategist and writer in modern times, the founder and commander-in-chief of Xiang Army. Zeng Guofan is a great statesman, strategist and writer in modern China. He is known as "the first perfect person in China" for his self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, ruling the country and leveling the world, making meritorious deeds, establishing morality and making a statement. However, he has an achievement that should be remembered by the world. He is an outstanding parent and a great educator. The greatest feature of his life is his high sense of responsibility for his family. He wrote nearly 65,438+0,500 letters at home in his life, which had a great influence on Zeng's descendants. For more than 200 years, none of the eight generations who followed Zeng Guofan was a "black sheep", and there were more than 240 celebrities, forming a famous family in China. As the first person to study Zeng Guofan in China, Mr. Tang thinks that Zeng Guofan's family style and family precepts are all-encompassing. If expressed in concise language, it is a sentence written by Zeng Guofan to his son, which a gentleman should learn and understand. So how to study? Zeng Guofan taught children to read in three main ways. In a letter to his eldest son, Ceng Jize, he wrote: Reading, reading, writing and writing are essential every day. The audience is like this. Last year, they read Historical Records, Hanshu, Korean, and Recent Thoughts. This year, they read Zhouyi. Readers such as Four Books, Poems, Books, I Ching, Zuo Zhuan, Zhaoming Selected Works, Du Li's Poems of Su Han, and Han Ou's Zeng Wang Wenzhi can't be magnificent without reading aloud, and can't explore their far-reaching charm without reciting quietly. According to Zeng Guofan, these are classics that can stand the test of time. Classics are called classics because their wisdom and thoughts have been tested by practice, and they are most worthy of being learned and absorbed by future generations. Why do we study? Is to learn the wisdom and thoughts of others and let the author's high-energy field affect us. Intellectual things will be constantly updated with time, but the more ideological things and intelligent things are precipitated with time, the more valuable they are to learn. Therefore, the biggest shortcut to reading is to read classics. Masterpieces must be intensively read, because intensive reading is more important than extensive reading in terms of learning efficiency. Although you can learn a lot from reading a lot, you have learned a lot and forgotten a lot. But intensive reading is different. You can eat deeply and thoroughly. Second, ""if you can't finish reading a book, don't read a new book. "Zeng Guofan argued that if you haven't finished reading a book, don't be busy reading other books. This is actually the immersion reading method. Of course, although Zeng Guofan advocated immersion in reading, he never advocated rote learning. He said to his son, "if you study, you don't have to make up for it." Just relax, read a few articles today and read a few articles tomorrow. Naturally, it will benefit for a long time. "That is to say, reading is immersed in it, but it should be a very relaxed and pleasant thing. Don't take it as a task. Reading should be a relaxing and pleasant thing, but Zeng Guofan advocated taking notes when reading, that is to say, learning to do while reading, and writing while reading, "take notes slightly, so as to gain something with ambition and doubt." In other words, we should write down our feelings, thoughts and thoughts when reading, whether it is our experience or our confusion, so as to help us learn after reading. Third, we should cultivate personal reading interest and direction. Zeng Guofan's education of his two sons is the most typical example. Eldest brother Ceng Jize doesn't like imperial examinations, stereotyped writing and western linguistics and sociology. Zeng Guofan encourages him to study according to his own interests. While interested in western learning in Ceng Jize, Zeng Guofan himself was not sure, but he also tried his best to read many books for his son. Later, Ceng Jize wrote "Introduction to Western Learning" and "Introduction to Geometry", which were published by Zeng Guofan himself. For Ji Hong, Zeng's second child, Zeng Guofan is even more so. He not only encouraged Zeng to cultivate his interest in mathematical research, but what is commendable is that after he got married, his wife was a woman who liked reading. Zeng Guofan felt that it was not easy for his daughter-in-law to enjoy reading in that patriarchal social environment. So I am teaching my daughter-in-law as well as my son. Guo Jun doesn't like math as Zeng Ji Hong does. She only likes literature and history. In this regard, Zeng Guofan is definitely everyone. Therefore, under the guidance of Zeng Guofan, Guo Jun read Notes to Thirteen Classics and Lessons Learned, and became a famous talented woman. Zeng Guofan said: "People's temperament is hard to change because they are born. Only reading can change their temperament. " . If you want to be good to yourself and your family, reading is the first important thing. Reading can increase knowledge, improve skills, and more importantly, improve people's spiritual realm and cultivate their hearts. These two aspects develop at the same time, and talents are sound people. Good reading, good reading, good reading, good reading can make sense, make sense, and act according to reason is a gentleman. In Zeng Guofan's view, the key to educating children based on society and keeping this family alive from generation to generation is two words: diligence and thrift. He asked the children to remember sixteen words in their lives-the family is thrifty and prosperous, the people are thrifty and healthy, they can be thrifty and never be poor! Zeng Guofan's youngest daughter, Zeng, left a chronicle in her later years, which recorded such a thing: in her teens, she followed her mother to Zeng Guofan's governor's office as the governor of the two rivers. The youngest daughter always dresses decently when she enters the Governor's Mansion, so she wears a small blue jacket above and a pair of yellow silk pants with green edges below. This pair of yellow silk trousers is not hers, but her eldest sister-in-law, that is, Zeng Guofan's eldest son Ceng Jize's dead wife left it to her. But it was the blue lace of these pants that made Zeng Guofan feel too complicated and expensive, so he accused his little daughter of not wearing such pants and told her to change them quickly. The youngest daughter hurried back to her room and changed into a pair of green trousers without lace. Zeng Guofan believes that "the poorer the child, the more he knows the hardships of life; The more you know how to work hard, the easier it is. """and aristocratic men have superior conditions and are easy to commit extravagance"; Pursuing a luxurious life wholeheartedly is not only difficult to become a talent, but also worse. Therefore, if aristocratic children want to achieve great things, they must "respect frugality" and "give priority to abstinence" and strive to live like ordinary poor children. Based on this understanding, he has strict control and detailed regulations on the material life of his family. Their household furniture is "solid, not luxurious". Four Treasures of the Study is "but he wants to be prepared by the poor, and he doesn't want to be rare. ".The amount of silver needed for daily life is limited to 10%, which is also called. Use up this month, only surplus, no debt. In terms of eating, he often "cooks one or two dishes in broth instead of meat at night" and "the younger generation doesn't eat meat at night, but only eats vegetables without broth". In terms of clothes, he himself "cares about being a leader, and all clothes are not worth 300 gold." Ask children "not to make too many clothes, especially those that are too rich and gorgeous." Weddings, funerals and celebrations, "everything is frugal", even his mother's funeral, he also used vegetables as usual, "no seaweed." For diligence. Zeng Guofan asked the children to get up at dawn. "Don't fall into the family style handed down by the great-great-grandfather exam." In the Zeng family, the main tasks of men every day are reading, writing and writing articles, in addition to taking part in some manual labor, such as cleaning, feeding fish, raising pigs and growing vegetables. Zeng Guofan summed it up as "books, vegetables, fish, pigs, breakfast, sweeping the floor, exams and treasures". Among them, except for "examination, treasure and book", the other five are all about labor. He repeatedly told: "These eight things can't be managed personally, but you should know this." "Women are required to do some needlework every day, and they are also required to learn to cook side dishes and cook in the kitchen. Three years of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan's wife, daughter and daughter-in-law came to Anqing headquarters. Zeng Guofan "has seven spinning wheels, which are noisy every day. It's very lively." You are a member of the governor's house, but you want to spin cotton yarn; In the backyard of the Governor's Office, spinning wheels ring all day long, which shows that Zeng Guofan was strict in running the family and simple in family style. Set an example and teach Zeng Guofan what to let his family do. Not only can he do it himself, but he can do it better. Personality power is more useful than some rigid rules. Zeng Guofan's tall image and heavy personality charm are deeply imprinted in the hearts of future generations, and this power may have a greater impact on future generations than his letters from home. Zeng Guofan once told his family that his clothes were only three hundred and twenty silver. Make a dress well, and it will last for more than ten or even thirty years. Zeng Guofan is strict with himself and his children not only in clothes, but also in daily diet. When Zeng Guofan was eating, if there were grains with shells in the rice, he would break the shells and eat the grains inside. In terms of work, Zeng Guofan is busy every day, from morning till night, never slacking off. The main official documents are self-approved and self-drafted, and there are few fake hands. Blindness in his right eye in his later years still persists every day. He kept a diary until the day before his death. In filial piety, Zeng Guofan is a model. Zeng Guofan showed great respect and filial piety to his grandparents and parents. He always writes low-key letters to his parents and elders, often praises his virtues and deeds, always asks questions, often reports and discusses family affairs, and urges his brothers, sons and nephews to be filial and conscientious. Zeng Guofan often felt guilty and ashamed that he could not personally honor his parents and elders. In a letter to his disciples on April 29, Daoguang said: "I live in Beijing, eating cream and wearing splendid clothes, but I can't be a grandson at all;" Wives are all sitting and enjoying themselves, so they can't share their mothers' work. They don't feel sweaty every time they think about it. "Parents elder slightly sick, zeng guofan was deeply worried. He said, "Grandpa's illness is getting worse and worse. Children and grandchildren are thousands of miles apart, how can this heart be indifferent? "When his mother died, Zeng Guofan was even more sad and deeply blamed himself. In a letter to Jize in July of the following year, Xianfeng said: "Yu De has no real talent and learning, and his reputation is not good. He knows that when there is a disaster, he will be afraid for a long time. Not that the sky won't kill me, but that the disaster will affect my mother. In retrospect, countless crimes were hidden on weekdays. When I heard this letter, I was really ashamed! "