Everyone must know themselves, understand others, and understand society, so that they can put themselves in a better position in interpersonal communication and work life. When you carry out your own activities in your work life, you can use your strengths just right and be welcomed by others, which must be very successful. Lao Tzu also expressed this view in the Tao Te Ching, which is what we want to talk about today as the Five Virtues.
The original text in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching:
Good deeds have no traces; good words are flawless; good numbers do not need to be planned;
Good closure, irrelevant and unopenable;
Good knots, no rope and unsolvable.
It is the saints who are always good at saving people, so there is no abandonment;
Always good to save things, so there is no discarded things, it is said to be clear.
Therefore, the good man is the teacher of the bad man; the bad man, the good man's asset.
Not expensive to his teacher, not to love his assets, although the wisdom is great.
People who are good at action do things without leaving a trace. People who are good at talking do not leave loopholes for others to blame. People who are good at counting, don't use counting tools. People who are good at closing, do not use bolts and people cannot open. Those who are good at binding, do not use ropes and can be untied by each person. Therefore, the saints are good at saving people, so there are no forsaken ones. Saints are good at using things, so there is no discarded thing. This is called the principle of following the usual path. Good people can be teachers of good people, and bad people can be good people's references. Not respecting the teachings of good people, not paying attention to the reference of bad people, although they think they are smart, they are actually confused. This is the deep and subtle truth.
Here, according to the theory of the Tao, Lao Tzu further proposed how people should carry out their actions, mainly proposing the "Five Virtues". The "Five Virtues" also reflect Lao Tzu's profound wisdom and are also an extension of his spirit of natural inaction.
There was a doctor named Song Yi in Liangguo, who once served as a county commander for a border county, which bordered the Chu state. The border barracks of the Liang state and the border barracks of the chu state both planted melons, each with its own method. The people on the side of Liang Guoshu worked hard and often watered their melon fields, so the melons grew well; the soldiers of the Chu State rarely watered their melons because of laziness, so the melons did not grow well. Chu Guoxian Ling was very angry that liang guo's melons did not grow well because of the good looks of the melons in the chu state. The soldiers of the State of Chu were jealous of the soldiers of the Liang State who planted melons better than themselves, so they secretly destroyed their melons at night, so the melons of the Liang State always withered and died. Liang Guo's soldiers discovered this and asked the county lieutenant to secretly go to take revenge on the melon fields that destroyed the Chu camp. The county lieutenant asked Song for instructions on this matter, and Song said, "Alas! How does this work? A grudge is the root of trouble. People make bad you also make bad, how can you be so narrow-minded! If I want to teach you the method, I must send someone over every night to secretly water their melon garden for the Chu state barracks at night, and don't let them know. So liang soldiers secretly went to water Chu Bing's melon garden every night. When the Chu soldiers went to the melon garden in the morning, they found that they had already been watered, and the melons were getting better and better every day. The Soldiers of the State of Chu felt strange, so they examined it carefully and realized that it was the soldiers of the State of Liang who had done it. Chu Guoxian Ling was very happy to hear about this matter, so he reported the matter to the King of Chu in detail, and after hearing this, the King of Chu was sad and ashamed, and regarded this matter as his own heart disease. So he told the official in charge, "Investigate those who go to people's melon fields and destroy them, are they guilty of any other crimes?" This is the Liang people secretly rebuking us. So he took out a generous gift, apologized to Song, and asked to make friends with the King of Liang. The King of Chu often praised King Liang, believing that he could keep his word.
What Lao Tzu tells us is that if you want to achieve the realm of inaction, first of all, you must do the ultimate in the field that you are good at, and when you break through the limits of what you are good at, you can reach a realm that cannot be reached by others. That is to say, there is nothing useless in the eyes of the master, they are all things that can be used to make useful things. This is an unfathomable kind of great wisdom.
In our work and life, there will be a lot of people who use small wisdom to cover up their stupidity, and use arrogance to cover up their inner vulnerability, these people think they are smart, but they are actually really confused. To do things, you must rely on the guidance of the road and go in the direction of positive energy in your heart, otherwise you will only end up pitting yourself.