Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan were both called saints, so why was Zeng Guofan only half a saint?

Answer 1

Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan were both called "saints", but Zeng Guofan could only be considered half of them.

Although Zeng Guofan was called a "saint", he did not really reach the realm of a saint. The realm of a Saint was extremely high. It was a realm where morality, wisdom, knowledge, experience, and other aspects had all been developed to the extreme. Although Zeng Guofan was praised as a "saint", he still had shortcomings in morality, knowledge, experience, and so on.

Although Zeng Guofan was honored as a "sage", his political status was not as high as Wang Yangming. Wang Yangming was a famous philosopher, strategist, and teacher at the end of the Ming Dynasty. He founded the "Yangming School", which had a profound impact on ancient Chinese philosophy, military, education and other fields. Although Zeng Guofan was also a famous politician and strategist in the Qing Dynasty, his political status was not as high as Wang Yangming's, and he did not have much influence on the political, military, and cultural fields of the Qing Dynasty.

Compared with Wang Yangming, Zeng Guofan also had some shortcomings in morality, knowledge and experience. Although Zeng Guofan was praised as a "saint", he also had problems in corruption, suppression of peasant uprisings and other aspects. Although Wang Yangming was praised as a "sage", he also had shortcomings in philosophy, military, education and other aspects. Therefore, although Zeng Guofan was called a "saint", he could only be considered half a saint.