How to evaluate Zeng Guofan?

Zeng Guofan is a master of China's modern traditional culture and Confucianism, and his influence is considerable. At that time, under the influence of foreign culture, his thoughts were not so pedantic, relatively timely, and he was a more open-minded and acceptable person. At the same time, he can extract excellent elements from traditional culture, so he is highly respected by many people. But on the whole, he is also a representative of old culture and old ideas.

He failed to break through the old framework and pattern, and truly accepted and understood the advanced foreign culture and ideas at that time. Therefore, he eventually became a supporter and defender of old culture and old ideas. The same is true of the Westernization Movement represented by him, such as Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong. So they had a lot of troubles, but they only kept the Qing Dynasty alive for decades. It will eventually lead to the decline and extinction of society and the country. Generally speaking, these people are all negative factors. They are part of the rot. From the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, they failed to allow China to establish an industrial system for 30 years. The so-called Westernization Movement is just a cover, which shows that they are really incompetent! How did the Meiji Restoration in Japan succeed?

Unfortunately for China, in that society at that time, no one was stronger than Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang. It is impossible to overthrow the Manchu dynasty, to truly industrialize and to effectively build the country. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is just a joke, but a group of people want to change the dynasty and become emperors themselves, and then they can dominate the country. Its organizational structure, political program and behavior pattern are extremely chaotic, and there is no advancement at all. The result of its existence only brought destruction, chaos and death to the country. Under their rule and influence, people's lives are much worse than before, and the situation is so bad that they can't live (it is said that the population has decreased by 65.438+0 billion).

Therefore, people like Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, in contrast, although maintaining an old order, have become defenders of a social order that can make people live. Society must have order, even if it is imperfect and rough, it is definitely better than no order. Because only under the order can society function normally and people live and work normally. Because of the poor performance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, talents like Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang were fortunate to be positive roles in the eyes of the people at that time. This is also the wonder of the relativity of things!