Chinese culture is broad and profound, has a long history, and is all-encompassing, and one of the branches is the colloquialism. The saying is a summary of the wisdom of the ancients, which has been passed down by word of mouth by generations of people and has been passed down to the present day. The saying originates from life, acts on life, and is a meticulous observation of daily production and life by the ancients.
Many sayings involve the principle of dealing with people in the world, such as the saying today that "I don't look at my wife at home, but I look at my clothes". What makes sense? In fact, this saying has the second half of the sentence, which is more classic.
First, don't look at the wife at home, but look at the clothes
The literal meaning of this saying is very simple, but it makes people feel confused at first glance, and if this saying is completed, the meaning will be clearer. The proverb after the completion is as follows: you don't have to look at whether the wife in a family member is virtuous, but just look at the clothes on the family members to get the answer.
For the sayings left by the ancients, it is necessary to interpret them in the context of the ancients, and if they are interpreted from the perspective of God of today's people, it will be too biased. As for the saying, we must know what it is, and we must know why it is so. Why did the ancients say that?
Ancient times was a hierarchical society, ancient men called their wives, will call her "xiannei help", "inner person", this title reflects the ancient "male outside, female inside" feudal thinking.
In ancient times, the division of labor between men and women was roughly that the husband was in charge of the foreign affairs of the family, to engage in the activities of the peasants, industrialists and merchants, and the wife was mainly to teach the husband and teach the children, to contract the household chores, therefore, to judge whether a wife was virtuous or not, the ancients thought that as long as they looked at the internal affairs of their home, whether they were well-organized, and they could be judged from many details, such as whether the furnishings in the home were neat, whether the family was clean and tidy, etc. These details can be seen in a small way.
Second, the virtuous wife and husband have few misfortunes, and the son is filial to the father and has a broad heart
The ancients said that "a virtuous wife and husband have few misfortunes", which is very wise, and the truth is true. In real life, whether the wife is virtuous or not has a great impact on the husband. It is often said that women are afraid of marrying the wrong man, but in fact, for men, the same is true for wives. Whether a wife is virtuous or not, the trajectory of life is very different.
There are not a few examples in life. For example, men are flesh and blood, sometimes easy to argue with others, and unvirtuous wives will be indiscriminate, adding oil and vinegar, and eventually small contradictions lead to major contradictions, and the gains outweigh the losses. The virtuous wife will help the husband to rationally analyze the contradiction, and finally choose to argue on the basis of reason, or choose to forgive others and spare others, and the virtuous wife will help her husband to make rational choices.
For example, men may be more careless, and in life, sometimes carelessness, will also lead to big mistakes and cause disasters, while virtuous wives are more careful, just complement each other's personalities, to avoid the husband from being careless in some important things.
The ancients ruled the world with filial piety, believing that "filial piety comes first", people often say "raising no teaching, the father's fault", whether the children cultivated are filial piety, the parents' teaching is very important, the filial piety of the son is the father's heart, about this, presumably not used as too much explanation.
Above, this is the whole saying: don't look at the wife at home, but look at the clothes. Virtuous wives and husbands have few misfortunes, and sons and fathers have a broad heart. Do you think it makes sense? Comments are welcome.