Research On The Ethical Thought Of Home Letters From The Marquis Zeng Guofan

The family motto culture, an ancient Chinese tradition, is the vital part of Chinatraditional culture, which plays an important role in the development of the traditionalfamily ethics in the history of China officialdom family. Zeng Guofan, as a modernrepresentative, the Ethical Thought embodied in his thousands of home letters andpushed the essence of the family motto culture into a peak. The Home Letters from theMarquis Zeng Guofan, calmly in wording, free in form and writing, random in thought,containing knowing words in insipid daily affairs, shows his all life journey aboutgoverning the state, self-cultivation and doing things. It also conforms to the thoughtof teaching family children to make one’s ancestors illustrious from feudal family inthe traditional meaning, and reflects the excellent quality about improvingself-cultivation culture to seek for survival and development in times. Therefore,mining the ethical thought from the Zeng letters plays a positive role in inheriting thefine traditions of the Chinese nation and the essence of quality in the historical andpractical significance.As a prominent and one of the most controversial figure in China’s modernhistory, Zeng praised the ideal of the traditional scholar bureaucrat “internal saints andexternal kings”, advocated to do administer affairs by the theory of rituals, expected todeny self and return to propriety to save people’s minds to bring order out of chaos ofsocial order to solve the social problems and bring the country from the brokenpolitical situation. He abandoned "foreign Differences", complied with the time changeto introduce the western learning, put the idea of “Learning Merits from the Foreign toConquer the Foreign” into practice, actively advocated and initiated the“Westernization Movement”, opened the first of its kind in Chinese modern reform ofthe self-improvement, ultimately achieved the three immortal macro feats about “to expound one’s ideas，to set one’s virtue，to set one’s meritorious” of Confucianscholars.Throughout "Zeng Letter", it includes virtue of cultivation, management methodsof the family, loyalty to the King, financial management and so on. The EthicalThought of his letter, which adhered to make Confucianism as the purpose,Neo-Confucianism as the fundamental, Human culture as the element, philosophers asthe assistance, good teachers and helpful friends as the method, ancestor’s instructionsas the source, collected the advantages of the public fully inclusive and equitable,reflected his thoughts on the transformation of the traditional family ethics, presentedus a more complete family ethics ideology of Zeng. These ideas will undoubtedlyprovide useful inspiration and guidance in carrying the content of contemporaryideological education, maintaining social responsibility, realizing self-development,encouraging the honest and upright of officials, promoting the harmoniousdevelopment of social relationships, enhancing self-awareness of civic virtue and soon.