Zeng Guofan's character and knowledge were praised by many people in later generations. His works were published by many publishing houses under the title of "The Complete Works of Zeng Wenzhenggong". The main works include: "Collected Works of Qiuquezhai" "Collected Poems", "Reading Records", "Zeng Guofan's Diary", "Memorial", "Zeng Guofan's Family Letters", "Family Tune" and "Miscellaneous Notes of One Hundred Schools of Classics and History", "Poetry Notes of Eighteen Schools", "The Way of Learning", "Five Proverbs", "Tingjing", "Bingjian", etc.
Zeng Guofan is famous for suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The war took up most of his life. However, in Zeng Guofan's heart, he preferred to be treated as a literati. Because in his view, a person can only be called a literati if he has made achievements in literature. Otherwise, he can only be regarded as a scholar at best.
Zeng Guofan attached great importance to learning throughout his life. Even when he was leading troops to fight, he never forgot to read and learn, so he was able to leave behind many articles and works.
"Zeng Guofan's Diary" and "Zeng Guofan's Family Letter" were mostly written by Zeng Guofan while he was marching and fighting. These two books truly record the development and changes of Zeng Guofan's thoughts and the communication between Zeng Guofan and his family. Therefore, they have become an important basis for modern scholars to study Zeng Guofan and the history of the late Qing Dynasty.
In addition, Zeng Guofan's works "Ting Jing" and "Bing Jian" are also popular in two different fields. "Ting Jing" was also completed by Zeng Guofan during the march and war. Some people say that it It is Zeng Guofan's masterpiece. It seems that this is an extraordinary book. In this book, Zeng Guofan elaborates on the way to be an official that he summarized after many ups and downs. The saying that later generations often say: "To be an official, you must learn from Zeng Guofan" should be summarized from this book.
Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan's favorite disciple, once praised the "Ting Jing" as a treasure trove for mastering nature and guarding oneself and serving the world. Later generations regarded him as an instruction manual for being an official, and they flocked to it.
Zeng Guofan's "Bingjian" is a book on physiognomy. "Bingjian" means using ice as a mirror to detect hair. Zeng Guofan elaborated on his theory of fortune telling in this book. The whole book "Bingjian" is short and concise, but every sentence is classic, and its grasp of human nature is very accurate
In addition, Zeng Guofan also had a high level of literacy in poetry and prose, so much so that some modern Historical scholars once called Zeng Guofan another "Confucian master" after Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi.