The gentleman is dry all day long, and the sunset is like a good, strong, and blameless.
This is the third verse of the I Ching, the nine-three words, which means that a gentleman is vigorous and persecuted all day long, until he is always vigilant and cautious at night, so that even if he faces danger, he will not be blamed.
This translation is quoted from Huang Shouqi and Zhang Shanwen's Zhou Yi Translation Notes, in which "Ti" means vigilance and is also the interpretation of Wang Bi and Kong Yingda. This word is mentioned in Jin Jingfang's "Zhou Yi Quan Xie" liao mingchun's examination, which does not mean vigilance, but the meaning of rest and rest.
According to Liao Mingchun's explanation, the general idea of this sentence is that a gentleman must know how to stop at the time, work hard during the day, and rest well at night, and reconcile yin and yang, so that there is no fault. There is nothing wrong with this understanding, which is in line with the path of one yin and one yang, but I still understand it according to the orthodox commentary, with the Zhou Yi Translation Commentary prevailing.
Dry, robust. The "dry" in the sentence is two dry, more robust meaning, that is, to go all out every moment during the day. Strong, dangerous. No blame, no scourge. The whole sentence is not difficult to understand, but it is meaningful for us to take action after reading it, so what are the actions?
The first is to do things in a fair and upright manner. We are "working hard all day long," and we are sure to do the right thing that is upright and unashamed, and at no time we are afraid of others knowing or investigating. For example, if you open the door to do business, Tong Shu is not deceived, not short of two pounds, and what you sell is a good thing that can stand the test, and you can naturally make money with peace of mind.
Or if you choose a legitimate job, go all out to do it every day when you arrive at the company, go to work without touching the fish, and do not do acts that harm the interests of the company, then you will work with a clear conscience, and you can enter the company at any time with your head held high and leave with your head held high. If you can treat every day and everything you do with such an attitude, your heart will be bright.
The second is daily reflection. It is not enough to work hard during the day, but at night we must be vigilant about what places are not in place, who are neglected, how to improve tomorrow, etc., so that there will be no mistakes. It can be seen that introspection is more important, as Socrates said: "The life without reflection is not worth living."
In fact, introspection is difficult to do, especially when a person is proud of the spring breeze, he thinks that everything is deserved, not that others have achieved him, but the result of personal efforts, such a person is very dangerous, because there is no unprovoked success. If there is, there are also unprovoked failures, but the time has not yet come.
So how should we reflect? Zeng Zi introspected himself: "Seek for others and be unfaithful? Friends and not convinced? Don't you get used to it?" Is it a best effort to do things for others? Is it honest to associate with friends? Is what you've learned put into practice? Ordinary people can reflect in this way, and it is already in place.
Of course, you can reflect on more aspects. I found a picture from the Internet called The Flower of Life, which is divided into eight parts: self-actualization, career development, financial management, family emotions, social friends, physical and mental health, leisure and entertainment, and personal growth. You can draw a picture like this by hand, or you can list them in order and write down your reflections at the end of each day.
Among them, self-actualization is what kind of dream you want to achieve, and whether what you are doing today is related to the dream. Personal growth is the growth of your knowledge, ability, vision and mind, which you can understand as the improvement of personal skills. The rest will not be explained much, simple and clear. What you have to do is to reflect on yourself every night from these eight aspects.
One thing to note here is that when reflecting, it is necessary to do what Mencius said, "ask for yourself", which means that you reflect on your own faults and then correct them, rather than blaming others, and not thinking that your faults are caused by others. Because the only thing you can reflect on is what you do, and the only thing you can change is yourself, which has nothing to do with others.
It's not that others are not at fault, it's that other people's behavior is uncontrollable to you, and you can't control that much. All you can do is to be strict with yourself, always vigilant, and never relax at any time, so as to maximize the guarantee that you will not have problems.
Especially when you have a small achievement or a proud life, meditate a few times "Gentlemen are dry all day long, xi ti ruo, strong, no blame", you will understand that trying to do a good job, maintaining your duty, reminding yourself to be careful in everything, more reflection, life will be less uncertain.