A New Probe into the Origin of Zeng Guo-Fan's Thought

Zeng Guo-Fan was not a thinker of the rationalistic Confucian philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties.Instead,he was the pioneer of the new Confucianism.Based on the traditional Confucianism,his thought combines the good qualities of hundreds of schools of thought and gives prominence to pragmatism.Zeng dedicated his whole life to exploring the pragmatic value of Confucianism,and didn't change his ideas three times,as some people assumed.He borrowed primarily from Cheng-Zhu,Shen-Han and Huang-Lao,and fused their ideas with the new Confucianism.His thought provides a new insight into how to cultivate oneself,how to manage one's family,and how to manipulate a nation and give the people peace.He was one of mileposts in the history of Chinese philosophy.