Let's first understand the meaning of these two idioms.
Icing on the cake: Adding flowers to the woven brocade is a metaphor for better things. The source is Huang Tingjian's "Ode to the An": "I want Fu Weng to make an ode again, and the picture is added to the icing on the cake." ”
Charcoal in the snow: Send much-needed charcoal to people on cold snowy days for people to keep warm. For example, giving people much-needed help. The source is Song Shi Fan Chengda's poem "Heavy Snow Sending Charcoal and Mustard Cain": "Without a reason, the ashes of the furnace are dialed together, and I want to see the chai jing not open at night." It is not that you have to send charcoal in the snow, and you have to talk about the scenery and poetry. This means that if charcoal is not sent at the moment of greatest need, the artificial mood and poetry will make people feel reluctant and artificial.
Let's understand heavenly ways and humanity. From the seventy-seven chapters of the Tao Te Ching. The original text is as follows: "The way of heaven, the damage is more than enough to make up for the deficiency." The way of man is not the case, and the damage is not enough to be more than enough. Whoever has more than enough to serve the world is the Tao. ”
The general meaning is: The Avenue of Heaven and Earth is to reduce more and replenish insufficient. For example, where the temperature is high, the heat is transmitted to the low place, and where the air pressure is high, the air flow is sent to the place with low air pressure. It is the truth that when the water is full, it overflows. Human society, on the contrary, constantly gathers wealth in their hands, reflecting human greed and desire. Those who can give their extra things to those who need them are those who have the tao, that is, the people who have virtue.
In this text, there is a clear reference to "heavenly way" and "humanity", and the performance of the two is just the opposite. Combined with the previous two idioms, it can well reflect a certain truth and tell us how to do things better.
Why should I put these two idioms together and combine them with the Word of Heaven and Humanity?
The icing on the cake is embodied in the "way of man": the damage is not enough to give more than enough. Nishiki is already very beautiful, and then add flowers. This is the good plus the good, the beauty plus the beauty, the beautiful things more and more concentrated. For example, when a person is promoted, we all go to say hello, say some praise, and send some beautiful gifts. That's the icing on the cake. Why? Because there is an intention to climb.
The meaning of sending charcoal in the snow reflects that a person is in a difficult time, his life is at a low point, and he needs the help of others the most. But in the real world, from nobility to disgrace, the average person will stay away. As the saying goes: the rich have distant relatives in the mountains, and the poor have no one to ask in the downtown. When others are in the "snow", knocking on the door to deliver charcoal, ordinary people can not do it.
Therefore, the old ancestors told us: it is easy to add flowers and flowers, but it is difficult to send charcoal in the snow. The rich and the noble are praised, and the poor are difficult to get married. This is a normal human society, which reflects that "the damage is not enough to make up for the surplus."
Therefore, those who can send charcoal in the snow are those who have the Tao, those who have virtue, and those who practice the "Way of Heaven." Those who like icing on the cake are ordinary people who take the "human way".
———— learn traditional culture and increase the wisdom of life. Welcome to the Chimoto Society. I am Zongcai.