"Righteousness is the foundation, self-cultivation is the foundation." Take the purity of thought as the foundation of dealing with the world, and take the improvement of self-cultivation as the starting point for doing things.
Sima Guang was a famous scholar, politician, and historian of the Northern Song Dynasty, claiming to be a descendant of Ma Fu. He is honest and kind, rigorous and down-to-earth in his studies, rigorous in his studies, and has a noble character of hard work, which is admired by the world. Sima Guang has been intelligent and clever since he was a child, with outstanding learning ability and understanding ability.
At the age of seven, he was able to read and recite "Zuo Shi Chunqiu" in the same year, and a well-known "miracle" occurred in the same year, Sima Guang encountered a child who accidentally fell into the water tank, and smashed the cylinder with a stone without asking for help from the adult, and rescued the child, which reflected Sima Guang's extraordinary wisdom. So who is the child that Sima Guang rescued, and why did the teacher not mention this child when he talked about the lesson "Sima Guang Smashing the Cylinder"?
The child Sima Guang saved was named Shangguan Shangguang, and many people may be unfamiliar with this name. It is recorded in historical sources that Shangguan Shangguang and Sima Guang were playmates from childhood, and the two often read and played together. When Sima Guang rescued Shangguan Shangguang, Shangguan Shangguang was still relatively young, but he always took Sima Guang's life-saving grace to heart.
When Shangguan Shangguang's family moved, in order to thank Sima Guang for saving his life, he also specially built a thanksgiving pavilion. Shangguan Shangguang is a person who knows how to reciprocate, so why does the teacher not mention anything to him when he is in class? According to a dedication of the Song Dynasty, it can be judged that Shangguan Shangguang was still very famous during the Song Dynasty, and he also had many achievements in politics, and he was a very talented person who could quickly set the knot in his brilliant pen and flowers.
After Shangguan Shangguang became an official, he deeply felt the complexity of the official field, so he resigned from the official and returned to his hometown and became an old master. Shangguan Shangguang did the peach and plum all over the world, and he told every professor's student the story of Sima Guang's rescue of him, and many students remembered Sima Guang. Throughout his life, Shangguan Shangguang was very grateful to Sima Guang for saving his life, and devoted his life to publicizing Sima Guang's rescue of him. Because of his propaganda, he also provided help for Sima Guang's career. The fact that Sima Guang saved him was vigorously publicized by him and increased Sima Guang's popularity.
The lesson "Sima Guang Smashing the Cylinder" is arranged in the language curriculum at the primary school level, and the primary school students are in the period of hanging hair, so the mind and comprehension ability are not mature enough, and the learning requirements for primary school students are not as high. Even if the teacher talks about Shangguan Shangguang in class, most people probably can't understand it. Moreover, there are very few records of Shangguan Shangguang in history, so the significance of the teacher's proposal is not great. Some experts have been skeptical about Sima Guang's smashing of the cylinder, and one of them said that in the modern archaeological process, no record of the Song Dynasty having such a thing as a "cylinder" was found.
This shows in disguise that the dynasty in which Sima Guang lived did not invent the "cylinder", not to mention that this "cylinder" can also accommodate a child. This kind of controversial matter, the teacher adheres to the rigorous teaching style, naturally will not share it with the children in class. And the protagonist of the story "Sima Guang Smashing the Cylinder" is not the child who was rescued, the protagonist is only Sima Guang, and the story is a praise for Sima Guang. Although Sima Guang had great achievements, Wang Anshi's failure to change the law was also partly due to him, and he once said: "There is no major event in the world, and there is no need to discuss more Zhang. This view is clearly contrary to Wang Anshi's main theme of implementing the change.
Sima Guang can flexibly use wisdom when he is young, not according to conventional ideas, but after growing up, but the idea is solidified, so the story of "Sima Guang Smashing the Cylinder" can be viewed from two levels, the first layer is pure praise for Sima Guang, and the other layer to analyze it shows that when you grow up, you are not as active as when you are a child, and when you are a child, you will form a sharp contrast with your behavior when you grow up, which has a strong ironic significance.
The story of Sima Guang and Shangguan Shangguang also shows that "things are clustered in groups, and people are divided into groups", the two of them have been good friends since childhood, and both of them are very successful when they grow up. The story of Sima Guang smashing the cylinder also gives people enlightenment, to be good at thinking, wisdom and age have nothing to do with it. When encountering difficulties, we should try our best to exert the power of wisdom and stimulate greater potential. After the potential is stimulated, it can create a better future and be able to exert its own value to the extreme.
In the feudal era in which Sima Guang lived, the reason why this story was so well-known was also to prove that the great characters showed differences from childhood. In the era of feudal rule, the vigorous propaganda of this story at that time was also a disguised political point of view indoctrination, in order to consolidate the dominance of the princely generals and maintain the autocratic rule of the feudal dynasty. After Sima Guang became famous, everything he did would be infinitely magnified and received a lot of praise and praise.
We often see things that are brave and courageous, and the people who save people are ordinary but have a helpful heart, and after saving others, they will usher in a lot of media and public attention. However, with the passage of time, it will gradually be forgotten by the public, and it will not be like Sima Guang. Therefore, the fact that Sima Guang smashed the cylinder can be passed down for such a long time is actually due to his special status.
But we don't do good to get praise and praise, but just to be unashamed. Learn from Sima Guang's helpful spirit, help others warm themselves, and hope that everyone can bathe in the sun.
Resources:
"Sima Guang Smashing Cylinder"
"Zuo Shi Chunqiu"