The author of "Cai Gen Tan" was Hong Yingming, who lived in seclusion in Maoshan in the Ming Dynasty

Cai Gen Tan is a collection of quotations on cultivation, life, life, and birth, and it is said that Mao Zedong liked it very much and carried the book from northern Shaanxi to Beijing.



The person who collected and compiled the "Cai Gen Tan" was Hong Yingming, who lived in seclusion in Maoshan in the Ming Dynasty.

Hong Yingming, who was alive during the Wanli Dynasty (around 1596) of the Ming Dynasty, wrote self-sincerity, and was also a chu Dao person and a Jintan person. Ming Dynasty thinker, scholar, and Taoist.

In his early years, Hong Yingming was keen on the name of Shi Tu gong, and the inscription was titled "Shu", and later associated with Yuan Yifan, Feng Mengzhen, and Yu Kongjian. He left his hometown to study the Tao, studied Buddhism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and authored 4 volumes of "The Strange Trail of the Immortal Buddha", which was included in the "Four Libraries Complete Book". In his later years, he returned to the hidden mountain forest, lived in seclusion in Maoshan around the 30th year of the Wanli Calendar (1603), and wrote the "Cai Gen Tan" that felt life, experienced life, and exhorted the world.

According to the "Jiangsu Yiwen Zhi" and the "Chronicle of Jintan County", Hong Ying, a Jintan man who lived in seclusion in Maoshan tomorrow night during the Ming Dynasty, wrote the famous "Cai Gen Tan".

The author of the book "Cai Gen Tan" published by the Economic Publishing House on June 1, 2010, introduced: "Hong Yingming, a Ming Dynasty man (who died around 1596 AD), wrote self-sincerity, and was called 'Huan Chu Dao Ren'. In his early years, Hong Yingming was keen on his career and fame, and in his later years, he wrote "Cai Gen Tan" when he lived in seclusion in Maoshan Mountain. ”

Cai Gen Tan is a collection of aphorism-style essays, in the form of quotations, with beautiful words, neat and neat, cautionary words, concise and intriguing. Mainly based on confucian thought on how to deal with the world, it combines the Confucian idea of moderation, the Taoist idea of inaction and the idea of the birth of the Interpreter, teaching the world to "go to the truth in vain", known as the first book of Chinese philosophy of life, a rare treasure book of the ancient world, and has an incredible subtle power for people's right mind cultivation and moral cultivation.

The title of the book "Cai Gen Tan" is taken from the Song Ru Wang Ge language: "If you bite the root of the vegetable, then Pepsi can be done." This means that as long as a person is strong enough to adapt to a life of poverty, no matter what he does, he will achieve something. Vegetable roots can survive in the year of famine, and they must bite the "vegetable roots" to correct deviations in life. The "Tan" of the book is to talk about the heart, talk about self-cultivation, treat people in the world, and receive things. The author named the book "Vegetable Root", which means that "human intelligence and cultivation can only be obtained through hard training." In the inscription written by Ming Yukong for the "Vegetable Root Tan", Ming Yu Kong further elaborated: "Tan, in the name of the vegetable root, is fixed in the experience of purification and hardship, and also cultivates and irrigation, and its turbulence and turmoil, prepared for dangers and obstacles can be imagined. He also quoted Hong Yingming as saying: "Heaven labors me to form, and I yi my heart to make up for it; Tianwan I meet, and I want to know it." "Yu Kongjian, a Jintan man, a Wanli Nian Jinshi, served as an official of Jiujiang Province, the head of the ceremonial department, and the ceremonial langzhong, and he was a person of the same era as Hong Yingming and a friend of Hong Yingming. Yu's explanation adds a layer of meaning, that is, in the face of bad luck, a person must strengthen his own integrity, work hard, and work hard to cultivate and water his ideals. Qianlongjian's "Republishing the Tan Sequence of Vegetable Roots" signed by the three mountain sick men tongli said: "Whoever plants vegetables must thicken their roots, and their taste is thick." He also quoted the old saying "sex determines the root fragrance of vegetables", indicating that only those who are indifferent and calm in their hearts can understand the purpose.

Cai Gen Tan was written in the middle and late period or at the end of the Wanli dynasty. In the era of Hong Yingming's life, the Ming Dynasty society entered the late stage, Emperor Shenzong ruled the country without a way, eunuchs had monopoly power, the imperial court was worried about internal and external troubles, the dominance of the Ming government declined, corruption gradually became the norm, and social values began to turn to open luxury and lasciviousness. Some people of insight are extremely depressed in their thinking, and they are not willing to join the gang with those in power, nor are they willing to cater to the secular social atmosphere against their will, so after experiencing the turmoil and setbacks of their careers, they have retired to the rivers and lakes. Some people have formed a lot of pen and ink, and the works that express the hermit Gao Yi's detached feelings have also been born at the right time, and "Cai Gen Tan" is one of the representative works.

In recent years, a hot wave of "Cai Gen Tan" has spread at home and abroad, and people even regard it as a classic of traditional Chinese culture together with books such as "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".