Liang Qichao: Become a person who is not confused, not worried, and not afraid (in-depth good article)

This article is a speech delivered by Mr. Liang Qichao on December 27, 1922 at the invitation of the Suzhou Students' Federation, although nearly a hundred years have passed and great changes have taken place in society, it still has reference significance for the young generation.

Gentlemen! I have been lecturing in Nanjing for almost three months. There have been several letters in the Suzhou academic circles here to invite me, but unfortunately I have homework every day in Nanjing, and I can't come separately. I am very grateful to be here today to be able to gather with all the princes of the schools in the city. But there is one thing that I still have to ask the kings to forgive: Because I have been carrying some illness for a month, I am reluctantly supportive, and I cannot give a very long speech today, I am afraid that I will live up to the expectations of the kings.

Asked the kings, "Why did you go to school?" I think everyone in the congregation replied, "For the sake of learning." Then ask, "Why are you asking for knowledge?" "What do you want to learn?" I am afraid that the answers of each person are very different, or they cannot answer themselves. O lords! I'll always answer for you: "To learn to be a human being." "The mathematics, geometry, physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, history, geography, Chinese language, English, and even philosophy, literature, science, politics, law, economics, education, agriculture, industry, commerce, etc., that you have learned in school are but a means needed to be human, and it cannot be said that the purpose of being a human being can be achieved solely. Let you master all those things, whether you can become a person or not, or another problem.

Human psychology has three parts: knowledge, affection, and intention, and these three parts are perfectly developed, and our ancestors called them "three virtues" - knowledge, benevolence, and courage. Why is it called "Dade"? Because these three things are the standards of ordinary human morality, there must be three things to become a person. What is the status of completion of the three pieces? Confucius said, "Those who know are not confused, those who are benevolent are not worried, and those who are brave are not afraid." "Therefore, education should be divided into three aspects: intellectual education, emotional education, and intentional education—the knowledge education, moral education, and physical education we are talking about now are not correct, the scope of moral education is too general, and the scope of sports is too narrow--knowledge education should teach people not to be confused, emotional education should teach people not to worry, and intentional education should teach people not to be afraid." Educators should teach students these three things to the end; our automatic self-education should also take these three things as the end.

How can we not be confused?

The most important thing is to develop our judgment.

Want to develop judgment:

The first step, at least, must have considerable common sense;

Further, you must have expertise in what you want to do;

Further, there must be wisdom to judge things.

If a person does not even have common sense, and hears thunder, he says that it is thunder and threatens; when he sees the lunar eclipse, he says that he is greedy for shrimp and toads. Then, there must be no idea of anything, and when you encounter a little difficult problem, you will rely on asking God, asking for advice, looking at the picture, and telling fortunes to solve it. The so-called "great confusion" has become the most pitiful person.

The teaching in primary and secondary schools in schools is to let people have a lot of basic common sense, so as not to grope for everything. But this little bit of common sense is not enough. As human beings, we always have to have a special profession.

I didn't do this profession for the first time, many people have done it before. They have accumulated countless experiences and discovered many principles and principles, which are specialized knowledge. I plan to do this profession, I should have this special knowledge. For example, do I want to farm? How to improve the soil, how to improve the seeds, how to defend against drought, diseases and insects... And so on, all of which have been learned by the experience of previous generations.

With this kind of knowledge, we will naturally not be confused when we apply him to deal with these things. Workmanship, business... And so on, each with his own special knowledge, and so on.

This is the kind of knowledge we seek in higher schools and above. But is this kind of common sense and knowledge enough? Not yet. The universe and life are alive, not dull; the things we encounter every day are complex and changeable, not simple and printed. If we only learned this one to understand this one, then when we come to us with something we have not learned, we are in a hurry. Therefore, it is also necessary to cultivate overall wisdom in order to have fundamental judgment.

How can this total wisdom be cultivated? First, we must really temper our always rough minds, make him meticulous and down-to-earth; then, no matter how difficult things we encounter, we must be able to think clearly about his organization thoroughly, and naturally we will not be confused. Second, we must really raise him and make him clear; then, when one thing is straightened out, I can judge him very calmly and clearly, and naturally I will not be confused. The common sense, knowledge and overall wisdom mentioned above are all essential elements of knowledge; the purpose is to teach people to achieve "the knower is not confused.".

How can we not worry?

Why should benevolent people not worry? To understand this truth, we must first know what the Chinese philosophers' outlook on life is. The word "benevolence" is wrapped up in the entire use of the Confucian concept of life. What exactly "ren" is, it is difficult to explain in words. Reluctantly, the next explanation can be said: "The realization of the universal personality." Confucius said, "The benevolent, the human." It means that the completion of personality is called "benevolence."

But we must know that personality is not something that can be expressed by a single person, but must be seen in the relationship between man and man. So the word "Ren" comes from the two, and Zheng Kangcheng interprets him as a "phase doll". In short, I have to sympathize with each other and become one, and then my personality can be realized. So if we don't talk about personalism, then we have nothing to say; when we talk about this doctrine, of course, we end up with universal personality. In other words, the universe is life, life is the universe, and my personality and the universe are no different.

To experience this truth is called a "benevolent one." But why would such a "benevolent person" not be worried? Where there is great worry, there are no more than two ends: one is worried about success or failure, and the other is worried about gains and losses.

If we have a "benevolent" outlook on life, we will not worry about success or failure.

Why? Because we know that the universe and life will never be perfect, the Sixty-Four Trigrams of the I Ching begin with "dry" and end with "unsatisfactory"; it is precisely in this universe that we will always be allowed to create and evolve. What we have done, but in the long distance of tens of thousands of miles of cosmic evolution, moving forward an inch or two, where is it worth saying success? But what if you don't do it? If you don't even move forward an inch or two inches without doing it, it is a real failure. The "benevolent one" sees through this truth and believes that only by not doing things can he fail, and that he will not fail in doing things; therefore, the I Ching says, "A gentleman keeps improving himself." "On the other hand, they can trust that everything will not succeed; tens of thousands of miles have moved an inch or two, is it a success?" So the Analects say, "You can't do it knowing it." "You think: People with this outlook on life, what else can they say about success or failure?"

Moreover, if we have a "benevolent" outlook on life, we will not worry about gains and losses.

Why? Because I believe that this thing is mine, there is something to gain or lose. Even personality does not exist alone, can not clearly draw this part is mine, that part is people's, but there is something there for me to get? There is nothing for me to gain, and of course nothing to lose. I am only learning for the sake of learning, working for the sake of labor, not using learned labor and so on as means to achieve some kind of end -- what can be "obtained" for us.

So Lao Tzu said, "To be born without being, to be for the sake of not holding." "The more you think of yourself as a man, the more you have it, and the more you think of it with others, the more you have." You think: People with this outlook on life, what gains and losses do they have to worry about? In short, with this outlook on life, it is natural to feel that "the heavens and the earth are born with me, and all things are one with me"; naturally there will be "no entry and no self-satisfaction." "His life is purely interesting and artistic. This is the highest emotional education, and the purpose is to teach people to achieve "benevolent people are not worried".

How can we not be afraid?

With no confusion and no worries, fear will of course be much less. But this is a matter of will. If a person's willpower is weak, he has a lot of knowledge, and he will not need it temporarily; he will have a very beautiful sentiment, and he will change his mind temporarily.

But how can the will be strong? The first thing needs to be bright in the heart. Mencius said: "The breath of the mighty, the greatest to the most rigid." "If you have an unsympathetic heart, you will be discouraged." He also said, "I do not shrink instead of shrinking, although I am brown and rich, I am not worried?" Self-defeating shrinking, although tens of millions of people, I am going to die. "As the saying goes, "I don't do bad things in my life, and I don't startle when I knock on the door in the middle of the night." "To maintain courage, one must start with all actions that can be done in public, and this is the first move. The second is not to be held back by inferior desires. The Analects say, "Zi Yue: 'I have not seen the Strong. Or to you: 'Shen Feng.' 'Zi Yue:'枨也欲,焉得刚?' Pulled by the materially boring lust, then the hundred chain steel will also become soft around the fingers.

In short, it is extremely easy for a person's will to change from strong to weak, and it is extremely difficult to return from weak to strong. If a person has a weak will, this person is finished. I can't afford to be my own Master, and what else can I do! Being suppressed by others and being a slave to others, as long as you are willing to struggle, you can eventually restore your freedom. His own will has become a slave to his own lusts, then, it is really a disaster, there is no room for recovery, and he has become a poor man with a lifelong fear of his head and tail.

Confucius said, "Harmony without flow, strong correction; neutrality without dependence, strong correction; state tao, unchanging saiyan, strong correction; the country has no way, until death remains unchanged, strong correction." "Let me tell you honestly, if you don't do this, you will never become a person." But it is really not easy to do so, and it is not necessary to do the work of tempering the will all the time. When the will is tempered to get home, it is natural to look at what you should do, do not hesitate at all, carry it up and do it, "although tens of millions of people are looking forward to it." In this way, we can be considered to be a person in the sky, and there will never be an ugly state of hiding your head and tail, leaving your head and right. This is the purpose of yiyu, to make people "brave and not afraid".

We take these three things as the standard of human behavior, please think about it, which one am I doing now? Which one is a little bit more certain? If you can't do even one thing, if you don't have even a little certainty, belch! That's really dangerous, and I'm afraid you won't be able to do it in the future!

Speaking of education in schools: the second layer of emotional education, the third layer of intentional education, it can be said that there is no education at all, and the only thing left is the first layer of education. Even if there is only so-called common sense and knowledge, as for the overall wisdom I am talking about, there is really nothing at all that relies on the cultivation of fundamental judgment. This kind of education in "selling intellectual grocery stores" is really chilling to think about his future! Now this kind of education cannot be changed for a while, and our lovely young man has no place to be educated except him. O lords! Do you still want to be a person? You have to know the danger! If you don't shake your spirit and think about self-help, no one can save you!

O lords! You must not think that some pieces of knowledge are considered to be learned! I'm honestly telling you: If you are a person, the more knowledge you have, the better; if you can't be a person, the more knowledge you have, the worse it is. Don't you believe it? Imagine the traitor who is reviled by the whole country, someone, who has knowledge, or is there no knowledge? Imagine the bureaucrats and politicians that the whole country hates—those who specialize in helping warlords do evil and the good people—are knowledgeable or uninformed? The kings must know! These people, when they were in school for more than ten years, were full of vigor and innocence, why did they not fall into such a field like the kings? Qu Yuan said, "What was the fangcao xi of the past, and now it is for Xiao Aiye?" If he has his own reasons, he will not be able to repair the harm. "The saddest thing in the world is to see a group of good young people, step by step, going down the bad road. The kings woke up! Now the people you hate and hate are the lessons of the past.

O lords! Are you suspicious now? Dull? Sad, painful? Feel like you can't resist the oppression on the outside? I tell you: You doubt and are dull, because you are confused because you do not know; if you are sad and miserable, you are worried because you are unkind; if you feel that you cannot resist the oppression of the outside world, it is because you are not brave that you are afraid. These are all your knowledge, feelings, and intentions that have not been cultivated and tempered, so you have not yet become a person. I hope you have a painful realization! With self-realization, nature will automatically. Then outside of school, of course, there are many learnings, reading a book of scriptures, turning over a history, and everywhere you can find good teachers of the kings!

O lords! Wake up! Cultivate your fundamental wisdom, experience your personal outlook on life, and protect your free will. You are not an adult, just look at these years!