The intention of saying "three disgraces in life" in Zeng Guofan's family letter.

Always "reflect" on what you have done. Introspection is a method advocated by Confucianism to strengthen moral cultivation. It can be seen from Zeng Guofan's letters that he has been constantly reflecting, reflecting and blaming himself all his life. He said, "Looking back, there are no regrets, no careless opinions." In many letters, we can feel that Zeng Guofan is always reflecting on himself, telling his family what is useful, telling them to stick to it, telling them the shortcomings and deficiencies that happened to him, so that they can learn from it and prevent it from happening to them. "There are three great shames in life: all kinds of knowledge are roughly involved, and astronomy and calendar are ignorant, which is the first shame; If you don't do one thing and start a career, you often have a beginning and no end, which is the second shame; When I was a child, I couldn't copy a font, which caused many changes, resulting in no achievement, boring and inapplicable calligraphy. This is the third shame. He told his son about his past shortcomings, hoping that he would take a warning, not repeat the same mistakes and strive for perfection. The reason why Zeng Guofan has such a high reputation, known as "eternal perfection", should have a lot to do with his life-long introspection. This is worth learning and using for reference. Confucius said, "My daily life depends on my health. "If we often reflect on our behavior, constantly carry forward our strengths and weaknesses, and dare to face and correct our shortcomings, we will certainly make great progress in our work and life.