As the saying goes, "Poor people must have something to hate", which means that most of a person's predicament is self-inflicted, whether it is not active to avoid, or not fully prepared to deal with the objective environment, it is a "hateful" place.
In the same way, the dangers faced by a person are not all imposed on him by others, nor are they all punishments given to him by nature and society, but he does not know how to prevent problems before they occur, so he puts himself in a dangerous situation.
In the "I Ching" Kun Gua first, that is, the first six words called "frost and ice", which means to step on the frost, will usher in the solid ice, see the frost, know that the cold winter is coming, people need to make preparations early, so as not to be frozen during the winter. Explain how important it is to prevent microaggressions.
"Frozen three feet, not a day's cold", when you are facing a dangerous situation, it is not formed in a day, it accumulates little by little in each inadvertent moment of your. Although you see the signs and know that it is a potential danger, but you are like a frog in warm water, you do not understand the principle of "walking on frost and ice", your situation will be more dangerous.
At the beginning of the Zizhi Tongjian, there is such a story. It is said that a man with the surname Ofe Zhong, named Yu Xi, saved Sun Hengzi of Weiguo, and after making great contributions, the Weiguo people gave him a fief. Uncle Zhong,Yu Xi refused, not wanting a fief, but instead applying to the monarch for a small object—Fan Miao, an ornament hanging around a horse's neck.
This kind of ornament can only be carried by the Son of Heaven and the horses of the princes, and Uncle Zhong yu Xi wants this ornament, which is nothing more than to make a name and not to profit, to make himself an aristocrat. Unexpectedly, the Weiguo monarch actually agreed, and made him a doctor, which was obviously a bad rule, and Confucius thought it was inappropriate after hearing about it, preferring to reward him with more fiefdoms than give him a lot of trouble.
Confucius meant that this kind of name cannot be given away casually, it represents a hierarchical order, once the order is disordered, it is not far from the destruction of the country. Coincidentally, this Weiguo, Zisi said when chatting with weiguo monarch: Your weiguo is about to end, right?
The Weiguo monarch was not convinced, and Zi Si analyzed: The upper beam is not right and the lower beam is crooked, the monarch is always self-righteous, and none of your ministers are willing to correct you in person, so they have learned to follow the self-righteousness. And when the common people see that the officials of the whole country are self-righteous, they naturally think that it is right to do so, so that the whole country is a virtue, which is undoubtedly very dangerous.
Sure enough, the national strength of the Wei state was weakening day by day, and from the Princely States of the Ji surname in the Zhou Dynasty, the status was gong, one level higher than the princes, and later it was demoted to the title of prince, and finally it was destroyed. In fact, the danger of the decline and fall of the Wei country is not overnight, from the uncle Yu Xi Fanyi to the self-righteousness of the whole country, it is a small hidden danger, but it is only ignored by those in power that it causes a catastrophe.
There is also a story of Li Ji's chaotic government. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Jin state was very powerful, and during the reign of the emperor Jin Xiangong, he was politically clear-minded and meritocratic, using a large number of people of the opposite sex as officials, such as Xun Xi and Li Ke, and he also solved the famous problem of "gongzi rebellion" in history, and abolished the system of gong clan doctors.
However, after favoring Li Ji, Jin Xiangong began to become faint, listening to the wind on the pillow in everything, and even wanted to make Li Ji his wife, depose Prince Shensheng and Li Li Ji's son Xi Qi as crown prince. This absurdity, of course, was fiercely opposed by the ministers. The unwilling Duke Xian of Jin actually wanted to use the results of divination as a reason to establish Li Ji and depose the crown prince.
The person in charge of divination was named Shi Su, and the result of each fortune was a bad omen, and compared Li Ji to the concubine of the King of Shang, and also used the "frost and ice to" in the "I Ching" to persuade Jin Xiangong, but Jin Xiangong could not listen to a word, or insisted on establishing Li Ji as his wife.
Li Ji, who became the lord of the harem, began to unscrupulously carry out a series of acts that plagued the Jin state, such as seducing the heavy ministers with hue, forcing the prince Shen Sheng to commit suicide and die, and the two princes Zhong'er and Yiwu fled, that is, the later Jin Wengong and Jin Huigong, which made the entire Jin state a miasma, like a mess, until Zhong'er returned to the Jin state to take power alone.
The whole story itself is not complicated, and others can see at a glance that the scourge of the entire Jin state is caused by the Jin Gong's favor, Xin Li Ji. And Shi Su was also reminding Jin Xiangong not to follow the old path of the King of Shang, he could not be unaware, but he thought that it was irrelevant to spoil a concubine, so he turned a blind eye. If Jin Xiangong understood what it meant to "walk on frost and ice", and knew the truth of preventing micro-gradualism, Li Ji's chaotic government could be avoided, and the Jin state would not be in danger.
Let's tell another story about martingale. When watching the TV series "Great Qin Empire", it was painful to see the end of Shang Martin's execution; the white snow on the same day as his life could not be kept, and death was the same day, which made people feel painful; dare to love and dare to hate, have responsibility, know that Shang Martin was sentenced to capital punishment and a night of whiteheads, green silk into snow, yingyu, also heartache.
However, in the "History of Shang Junlie" and the "Zizhi Tongjian", the Shang Martingale is written somewhat differently. Not to mention how high Shang Martin's talent and great merits are, just by looking at his life, you can see his end. Although he knew that the consequences of the change of law must be fatal, he ignored his own behavior before and after the change of law, and laid the groundwork for future encounters with solid ice like frost.
In the Zizhi Tongjian, there is a dialogue between Zhao Liang and Shang Martin. Shang Martin thought that he had made an indelible contribution to the strengthening of the Qin state, so he wanted to compare himself with Bai Lixi, the prime minister who assisted Qin Mugong in his struggle for hegemony, and asked Zhao Liang: "Ziguan I rule Qin, who is the same as the Five Emperors?" That is, I am more capable than Baili Xi, how?
The reason why Bai Li xi was called the Five Emperors was because Qin Mu had exchanged five black sheepskins for it. Zhao Liang asked, "Can you avoid death by telling the truth?" After Shang Martin was innocent, Zhao Liangcai told the truth. This passage is very classic, and I will pick up the main point to say something to the effect:
Bai Lixi was a cattle herding countryman in the Chu state, who served as the prime minister of the Qin state for six or seven years, during which time he had made meritorious contributions to Zheng Zheng, helped the new monarch of the Jin state, and saved the Chu state from danger. After becoming the prime minister, he did not take a car anywhere, there was no convoy or escort on the parade in the capital, and when he died, the Qin state cried bitterly, and even the people who were usually used to singing were silent.
And the martingale? Climbing to a high position by the introduction of a favored courtier, making others uncomfortable, this is no better than the purity of a cattle herder in Baili Xi. After coming to power, he killed people indiscriminately, and even the prince was not spared. Usually, when they go out, they talk about pomp and circumstance, have armed vehicles and armor to protect them, and they also covet wealth and nobility, and engage in dictatorship in the Qin country, and the common people have long had resentment. Once Qin Xiaogong died, there were many people looking for Shang Martin to settle accounts.
Judging from Zhao Liang's words, the reason why Shang Martin was split by the car, in addition to the fact that the change of law hurt the interests of some nobles, was that what he did in his daily life made others accumulate resentment. Zhao Liang's advice was too late, and Shang Martin did not listen at all, and shortly after qin Xiaogong's death, he was sentenced to capital punishment.
If Shang Martin had changed the law just for the sake of enriching the country and strengthening the people, and usually paid attention to his own words and deeds, although a few people were angry in their hearts, they would not lose the hearts of the people, and his end might be better. Although the person who has achieved great things can be informal, these sub-sections are lurking dangers, and even one day he loses his life because of it, but he turns a blind eye, that is, he eats the consequences.
It can be seen from this that these three stories tell us the truth of preventing micro-gradualness, to see the micro-knowledge, to see the leaf and know the autumn, and to pay attention to the small things around us that may cause danger at any time. A thousand-mile embankment, destroyed by an ant nest, a small ant nest, may destroy a dam, the correct way is to see the ant nest in time to deal with it, rather than turning a blind eye.
Any evil and danger is caused by tiny things and habits that are difficult to detect at the beginning, and you may feel that it is irrelevant to let go for a while, even if you see it the next day, you think that the danger will not come quickly, and let it go for the time being. But when it accumulates and snowballs bigger and bigger, you are difficult to control, and then the real danger comes. Therefore, at any time, even when there is no trouble, we must have a sense of crisis and prevent problems before they occur, which really understands the meaning of "walking on frost and ice".