Night reading 丨 "Be honest and do things in a down-to-earth manner" is a shortcut in life

Text/Kyobo Sinology

Zeng Guofan's family book has a saying: "Only the world is clumsy, and it can overcome the world's most skillful." "Some people seem smart, but they end up being clumsy and don't get anything done. And some people, maybe they walk slower, maybe they look stupid, but they can often make a splash and shine.

It can be seen that in the world, if you can keep it in a big way, you will be able to get a great advantage.

So, what is great clumsiness? And how to keep the advantage of great coincidence?

Clumsiness is called diligence

"All the mediocre people of the world, ancient and modern, have been defeated by a lazy word." When he was young, Zeng Guofan was not talented, and he could even be said to be a little stupid, and he could become a master of learning, all by one word: diligence.

In terms of reading, Zeng Guofan set a rule: a book, do not understand the previous sentence, do not read the next sentence; do not understand a book, never read the next; do not complete the day's learning goals, never sleep.

It is this kind of hard-working spirit of going all the way to "black" that cultivates his hard-working, hard-working, and down-to-earth qualities that are different from ordinary people. These qualities are called "clumsy".

Shou Clumsy, so that Zeng Guofan from an early age to know the "setback". Since the age of 14, he has begun to test Xiucai, fighting for seven years, falling off the list year after year, but he has always been indomitable. Finally, in the eighth year, he was admitted to Xiucai; in the second year, he won the lifting; and after another four years, he won the jinshi. And the former same window, early in the examination of talent, but did not even take the test.

There is a good saying: there is only one true heroism in the world, that is, after recognizing the truth, still love life. The road of life will not be smooth, only concentrate on doing what you should do, do everything well, and eventually achieve satisfactory results.

Hard-working and clumsy people will not be opportunistic. When encountering difficulties, they all "hit" the southern wall and broke through. On the contrary, those who have little wisdom are lazy to work hard, always thinking about how to bypass difficulties, seemingly taking shortcuts, but the foundation is not solid, and finally they suffer the consequences.

The literary scholar Han Yu once said: "Karma is good at being diligent and absurd." "Throughout the ages, people who have achieved themselves in a humble and diligent manner have abounded.

Wang Xizhi, who insisted on practicing calligraphy and washing a pond of water, became a famous calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty; Dong Zhongshu, who immersed himself in reading for "three years without peeping in the garden" when he was a teenager, became a generation of Confucian masters.

Clumsy and diligent, seemingly slow, is actually the fastest way. Because it is solid and solid, there is no disadvantage left behind.

Clumsiness is called perseverance

The ancients had clouds: "There is nothing difficult in the world, but I am afraid of people with hearts." "The things of the world, no matter how difficult or easy, are afraid of the word "serious."

Zeng Guofan once made a vow: not to be a sage, that is, to be a beast, and the first step in following the sages is to cultivate the body.

He set himself 12 daily lessons, including reading, writing, meditation, and writing a diary. Here's an emphasis on journaling.

Zeng Guofan's diary is not complicated, it is basically a day's running account: what was done, who was met, and what was said.

He would record everything as it was, reflect on it and annotate it; he would even show the diary to outsiders and let people judge his words and deeds.

Writing a diary in this way has exercised Zeng Guofan's "heng".

Constant, that is, clumsy. Only perseverance can do one thing well. When it came to keeping a diary, he continued to write from the age of 29 until the morning before his death.

Someone once proposed the "10,000 hours law", that is, focusing on a field for a long time, and continuously paying 10,000 hours of learning and accumulation can achieve an expert in a field.

To be humble, there is no need for talent, and there is no need for exquisite clarity.

You only need to find the right direction, patiently repeat simple things, and do repetitive things with your heart in a down-to-earth manner, and you can climb to the peak of life that people look up to.

Whether a person is smart or stupid, clumsy and cautious, is essentially a requirement of the heart and mind. Rhetoric and stealing can only delay time.

Anything can only be achieved by swooping down, working hard, taking one step at a time, and implementing one thing at a time.

There are not so many shortcuts in life, and the real shortcut is a "dry" word. When the effort comes home, the quantity changes into a qualitative change, and various problems will be effectively solved in the course of development.

Everyone is an ordinary person, and everyone can do extraordinary things. A person who is "clumsy" to the extreme is "great coincidence".

Zeng Guofan's experience tells us a "shortcut" in life, that is: to be honest and do things in a down-to-earth manner; if people have great clumsiness, they will have great cleverness.