Dong Yuhui wrote this sentence on the title page of "The Dust Settles":
"In the cycle of life and death, people are silent and noisy, alive and well in hope and despair. ”
This epic novel caused a sensation upon its publication, winning the "Mao Dun Literature Award" in one fell swoop, and was called "China's version of "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
In the book, the author tells the story of the rise and fall of the last generation of the Tibetan Tusi family through the perspective of a fool.
The old and new times change, under the wheels of the times, the shrewd and capable people die, the brilliant people lose, and the fool who everyone laughs at becomes the final winner.
From a fool who was despised at birth to a toast who became popular with everyone, the fool is not smarter than others, but better at borrowing strength.
Borrow character and cultivate blessings
Under the layers of the Tusi system, the snow plateau is strictly hierarchical, and the people are divided into three, six, nine and so on, and there is a difference between respect and inferiority.
As a toast who was personally entitled by the emperor, the Maiqi toast family is extremely noble.
However, there is an exception in the family, and that is the second son of Mai Qi Toast, the foolish young master.
During the Spring Festival when he was 13 years old, the foolish young master was attracted by the snow outside the house and took his servants out to catch thrushes.
Together with his subordinates, he smashed thrushes with stones, collected firewood to make fires, and ate thrush meat.
This scene fell in the eyes of the foolish young master's mother, which was to mess up his dignity and humbled himself and surrendered his identity.
The fool became snow blind because he stayed in the snow for a long time, and his mother used this as an excuse to hang up his subordinates and whip them severely.
Unexpectedly, the fool used the momentum of the young master and ordered loudly: "Don't fight!"
The subordinates, who are accustomed to being cold-eyed and humiliated on weekdays, are treated as "people" for the first time in their lives, and they can't help but be grateful to him.
From then on, only a fool obeyed his fate and went to the soup for him.
The fool who has always been despised by everyone also has his first supporters.
A few years later, one autumn, there was a bumper harvest of grain in the territory of Mackie Toast.
Faced with this prosperity, Mache asked his two sons what they thought.
The clever eldest son wanted to take advantage of the strength of the army to attack other tribes, but the foolish young master blurted out:
"Exempt the people from paying tribute for one year. ”
Mackey Toast eventually took the fool's advice.
As soon as the order was issued, the people cheered and spontaneously set up a stage to sing the praises of Mai Qi Tusi, and the cohesion of the tribe also reached an unprecedented level with the people's will.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Mai Qi Tusi sent his two sons to the two granaries in the north and south respectively, asking them to show their skills and find ways to expand the territory of the Mai Qi family.
Unlike his brother, who burned and plundered along the road, the fool not only did not start a war, but also asked the cook and the housekeeper to fry the wheat in the granary and distribute it to the hungry people of other tribes.
It didn't take long for the hungry people who had received the fool's favor to worship him as a god and brought their families and mouths to him.
In this way, the Tusi of the surrounding tribes lost the support of the people and had to take the remaining people of the territory to surrender.
In this way, the fool easily subdued three tribes without spending a single soldier, greatly expanding his territory.
爱出者爱返,福往者福来。
The surprises and blessings that a person obtains are often the kindness and character accumulated by himself.
Some people have been camping all their lives, working in scheming, and they have lost Qingqing's life;
Some people seem to be stupid and stupid, and they take the initiative to suffer, but they become winners in life.
In the world, talent and ability may make people go faster, but only character can make people go further.
If you are kind, good fortune will always come your way up at some point in the future.
Take advantage of the current situation and raise luck
In order to make more money, Mai Qi Tusi asked the military government for help and secretly bought a batch of poppy seeds.
In the first year, with only one Mai Kei, they quickly made a fortune from poppy farming and amassed a huge fortune.
Seeing this, the other tribes were so angry that they came to their homes to ask for poppy seeds.
But the fool said:
"Seeds will drift in the wind, and they will be carried away by sparrows.
To give or not to give, the seeds will go to other people's fields, it is better to be a favor. ”
Mache Toast and his eldest son only thought that he was stupid, resolutely refused to give seeds, and killed the messengers sent by the tribes.
But the good times did not last long, and the fool's prophecy soon came true.
The surrounding tribes eventually obtained the poppy seeds, and the snowy plateau was covered with blood-red poppies.
Opium poppy is no longer scarce, and prices have fallen again and again.
A more realistic problem is that all the land is used for opium poppy cultivation and there is no land to grow food for the coming year.
With regard to the opium poppy, whether to continue to grow it or not to grow it has become a difficult problem for Mai Qi Toast.
The eldest son still insisted on growing opium poppies, but the fool once again gave the opposite argument:
Burn the opium poppy and grow back the grain.
This time, Mache Toast remembered the lesson of poppy seeds and finally listened to the fool's opinion.
Everyone thought that Toast was crazy, and even gave up the lucrative opium poppy to grow the most basic food.
However, when the harvest was harvested the following year, other tribes were plunged into a once-in-a-century famine due to their all-out efforts to grow opium poppies.
Only the Maiqi Tusi family is abundant, and the people do not worry about eating and drinking.
As a result, food is scarce and expensive, and the poppy is rotting in the ground.
Food has become a tool for a new round of games.
The fool tried to mediate several times and sold it at ten times the price, which not only hoarded wealth in one fell swoop, but also greatly weakened the other toasts.
After this time, the Mai Qi family became more prosperous than ever, and no other tribe could compete with it.
Sun Tzu's Art of War said:
"The time, the place, and the people are not allowed to do the three, although there is a victory. ”
The success of the fool seems to be due to luck, stained with the light of the grain harvest, but in fact, he knows how to see the essence of things clearly and borrow from the times.
is like Li Bai's poem:
"Between the white emperor and the clouds, thousands of miles of Jiangling will be returned in one day. ”
Go with the wind and down the river, so that you can borrow the power of wind and water to travel thousands of miles a day.
The real masters know how to take advantage of the situation, move with the trend, and transform an investment into a starry number.
Borrow the trough and accumulate capacity
The toasts of the same generation as the Mai Qi Toast were all anxious about the inheritance of their sons.
But the Mai Qi Tusi family is unusually warm and harmonious, just because the second son of the Mai Qi family is a well-known fool.
Because he was stupid, his father never cared about him, and his brother never worried about him competing with him.
Under the shell of "stupid", although the foolish young master has no chance to inherit the position of toast, he has his own protective color.
No matter what you do, you won't arouse suspicion from others.
In fact, he never really indulged in pleasure, but took advantage of the convenience brought by stupidity, and continued to take root and accumulate strength in a situation where no one paid attention.
Only the fool's henchmen know that the second young master is not as stupid as the outside world rumores.
His marksmanship is first-class, and he also has a keen observation that the eldest young master does not have.
At a critical juncture, it is always the foolish young master who makes major moves to push the tribe to its peak again and again.
However, when the fool returned with the success of the three tribes and married Tana, the heir of the Ronggong tribe, Mai Qi Tusi was afraid of him and drove him to the territory of Ronggong Tusi.
At the same time, Ronggong Toast also deliberately suppressed him, preventing him from taking Tana back.
Everyone laughs at fools, approaching power and missing in vain, it is impossible to be a toast in this life.
But the fool never gave up on himself because of this, but hibernated silently, quietly waiting.
On the one hand, he went deep into the common people, mingled with the common people, and listened to the latest situation and market news;
On the other hand, he kept in close contact with his former subordinates and let them perform their duties and run various businesses.
A few years later, although the foolish young master seemed to be gradually missing this person in the Maiqi tribe, he had actually become the richest person in the entire snowy plateau.
When Mai Qi Tusi died, the fool became one of the most powerful toasts in Tibetan history.
In life, it is inevitable that there will be ups and downs, and there will always be highs and lows.
When encountering a trough, some people are depressed and feel sorry for themselves;
There are also people who complain and are full of resentment.
But as Zeng Guofan summed up himself:
"The growth of my life is all in times of humiliation. ”
From another point of view, the trough can be a desperate situation that crushes a person, or it can be an opportunity for Nirvana to be reborn.
Fate has arranged for you to be injured in order for you to give birth to armor;
Life gives you problems in order to make you surpass yourself;
God let you go to the mountains and rivers, isn't it for you to find the willows and flowers.
Regard the predicament as a turning point and use the trough as the fulcrum to break the game, so as to bottom out and rebound and turn around gorgeously.
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The big hand of the times passed by lightly, the life of a fool came to an end, and the toast system came to an end.
This fool, who didn't even have a name, lived a life that could be called legendary and wonderful enough.
We can't choose our origins, and we can't change our established intelligence and talents.
But we can see ourselves as a fulcrum, borrowing strength from ourselves and the outside world to leverage our destiny.
Accumulate good fortune by virtue of kindness;
Take advantage of the east wind of the times to repair luck;
Turn the trough into nourishment and accumulate capacity.
Life is difficult, and only by turning everything you encounter along the way into your own use can you use your strength to reach the clouds.