Ceng Gong (10 19— 1083) was born in Nanfeng (now Jiangxi). Northern Song Dynasty writer, one of the "Eight Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties". Song Jiayou became a scholar in the second year (1057). When I was a child, Ceng Gong and his brother Zeng Ye studied hard together and studied hard, but Bai You showed a good talent. His younger brother Zeng Zhao called him "born alert, not like a teenager" in "A Journey to My Dead Brother", and he had a superior memory, "reading tens of thousands of words and blurting it out". In the second year of Jiayou (1057), at the age of 39, he was admitted as a scholar and was appointed as the Taiping Judicial Army, from which he embarked on his career. The following year, Feng recalled to Beijing, edited and collated books in the history museum, moved the museum to collate, and recruited collating talents. In the second year of Xining (1069), he served as the governor of Qi, Xiang, Hong, Fu, Ming and Bo, and was quite famous. In the third year of Yuanfeng (1080), he moved to Cangzhou and passed the capital. When Zongshen summoned him, he proposed that economy was the key to financial management, which was quite appreciated by Zongshen, and he left three classes to serve. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, Zongshen was good at historiography, so he appointed the History Museum to compile the Outline of the Five Dynasties, but failed. In the fifth year of Yuanfeng, he worshipped Zhongshu Sheren. He died in Jiangning House the following year. When operating Buddhism, we pursue "Wen Ding". Ceng Gong's performance on the political stage is not outstanding, but his greater contribution lies in his academic thought and literary career.

Ceng Gong's thought belongs to the Confucian system. He agreed with Confucius and Mencius' philosophical views, emphasizing "benevolence" and "sincerity", and believed that as long as he was open-minded and introspected and cultivated himself sincerely according to the golden mean, he could understand and dominate the world. Politically, he opposed the merger policy and advocated developing agriculture and opening up roads. When he was a local official, he always took "benevolence" as his bosom, "except rape, arouse its evil; Get rid of their sufferings and caress their kindness "(Preface to qi zhou's Miscellaneous Poems). Due to the limitations of his thoughts, he had some different views on Wang Anshi's political reform. He believes that the denser the law, the more disadvantages it will have. However, Ceng Gong does not advocate obeying the law. Dissatisfied with the insistence of the incumbent, he put forward "Buddhism, so it is necessary to be flexible and not necessarily the same;" Tao, so the foundation is also indispensable "(Preface to the Catalogue of Warring States Policy). It advocates the necessary reform of the law without losing the will of the former king. In action, he was able to uphold the new law. When he was an official in qi zhou, he was able to practice the Garbo law and let the people of Jizhou live and work in peace and contentment. Ceng Gong made great achievements in prose creation, and was an active participant in the poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty. He learned from Sima Qian, Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu, and advocated "Ming Dow as the body of writing", which extended Ouyang Xiu's view of "keeping promises and having a proper way to speak" to historical biography literature and inscriptions. He said in the Preface to the Book of Southern Qi Dynasty: "The so-called good historian in ancient times must know his way and his things, his way must be suitable for the world, and his wisdom must be enough to understand his feelings and be difficult to express, so he can do whatever he wants." He emphasized that only "people with moral ability to write articles" can make a big fuss and write "Ming Dow". Most of his articles were written by Ming Dow, and his writing style is known as "quaint, upright and harmonious". According to the legend in the History of Song Dynasty, he "stood between Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi, rich but not greasy, simple but not unlucky, and stood out from the crowd and became his own family". His argumentative essays analyze whispers, clarify doubts, stand on one's own feet, analyze and distinguish difficulties, and show no edge. Tang Lun is one of the representative works, which assists the argumentation of ancient things, emphasizes gains and losses, has fluent language and slow pace, and can be compared with Ouyang Xiu's "The Theory of Partisan". His narrative prose is rich in information and emotion, and his arguments are pertinent and vivid. The famous Mo Chi Ji and Yue Zhou Zhao Gong Disaster Relief Ji are profound, forceful and reasonable. His book, preface and inscription are also good articles. "Letter to Mr. Ouyang Scheeren" and "Ruling Book of Upper Fuzhou" have always been regarded as model essays. The narrative is euphemistic and profound, the language is concise and concise, and the structure is very rigorous. The Preface to the Catalogue of Warring States Policy is magnificent and highly respected by people. When Quincy's style prevailed, his prose and Ouyang Xiu's prose, a sculpted style, tended to be simple and natural. Wang Anshi once praised: "Ceng Zi's articles are rare in the world, and water is a bucket of Jianghan stars." (Gu Ceng Zi). Su Shi also said: "the meaning of drunkenness is not in wine, so it is difficult to go to heaven;" Ceng Zi is unique in anecdotes, lonely and ugly. "Ceng Gong is also good at writing poems, with more than 400 poems handed down from generation to generation. His poems are either magnificent or euphemistic, all of which are profound and interesting. Forced Rent depicts the tragic situation of "nine-year-old summer withers and the sun burns Wan Li", and "although the plan sells strong, the potential is not weak", calling for "violent officials should be removed and floating fees can be cut", similar to Wang Anshi's poem "Bing". The quatrains "West Building" and "South of the City" are fresh and meaningful, and have the charm of Wang Anshi's poems in his later years. Most of his poems about things are full of new ideas, such as the poem "Singing Willow": "Chaos is not yet yellow, and I am crazy about the east wind. I wonder if there is frost in heaven and earth. "Willow is a metaphor of traitors and evil forces, which is vivid and profound. Ceng Gong's poems are transcendent in style and fresh in words, but some of them also have the common problem that Song poems are expressed in classical Chinese, which is also hidden in the poems, so people don't pay much attention to them. Ceng Gong has also made great achievements in sorting out ancient books and editing historical books in his life. He collated The Warring States Policy, Shuo Yuan, Biography of Lienv, Li Taibai Ji and Chen Shu. Because of his visit, the two books, Warring States Policy and Shuoyuan, were not lost. Every time he writes a book at school, he has to write a preface, so as to "distinguish academic chapters and examine the edges in the mirror." "Ceng Gong has a good collection of books, with more than 20,000 ancient books; Collect 500 volumes of seal cutting and name it "Jin Shi Lu". Ceng Gong's research is rigorous, and every force scholar strives to think deeply and seek, so as to know its importance and subtlety, and to "gallop up and down, make more achievements". His younger brother Zeng Zhao said that his article "was handed down from generation to generation in less than ten days at the end of the month, and the bachelor and doctor recited it by hand, lest it was too late" (Zeng Zhao's Death of My Brother, see the end of Yuan Feng's manuscript). Ceng Gong has trained a group of famous Confucian masters, and Chen Shidao, Wujiu Wang, Zeng Zhaohe and Ceng Bu have all been used by him. " "Song and Yuan Learning Cases" says: "Chen Wuji (a teacher) is eager to learn and study hard. Taking Ceng Zi Valley and Zigu as points, he went to Baidu, and he made a promise and prepared without hesitation. "Ceng Gong's article also has a great influence on later generations. Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty "loved his strict words and lived in taste and chanting". Wang, Mao Kun and Gui Youguang, essayists in the Tang and Song Dynasties in the Ming Dynasty, and Liu Dahuai, Yao Nai and Qian Rusi of Tongcheng School in the Qing Dynasty all took his articles as the standard. " "The History of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Chuan" contains: "Caution is the text, and Qin and Han Dynasties are the beginning, which means that there is no merit in Tokyo. European writing was burned, and old works were imitated, especially in Ceng Gong; If you don't accept it at first, it will change over time. "Ceng Gong's life is rich in works, with 50 volumes of Yuan Feng's codex, 40 volumes of Yuan Feng's codex, and the external set 10, which is world-renowned. Besides, he also wrote Records of Wei Dao, Biography of University Students, Compilation of the Book of Rites, Miscellaneous Affairs, Strategies of Politicians in Song Dynasty, Textual Research of the Book of Songs and so on. After the Song Dynasty crossed to the south, the codex and foreign codex were lost, and only 50 volumes of Yuanfeng codex remained. Another 30-volume old title "Longping Collection" was written by Ceng Gong, but there were some mistakes in previous research.