"A gentleman is wary of what he does not see, and fearful of what he does not hear. Mo sees hidden, Mo is microscopic, so the gentleman is cautious and independent. "
---- "Etiquette: The Middle Way"
A person who, without supervision, spontaneously and voluntarily maintains his own noble moral character, and does not do bad things when he can do all kinds of bad things, this is -- prudence and independence.
Many years ago, I heard a story that there was a convenience store near Harvard University, the convenience store did not have a cashier, there was a box in the store, the box was full of change, I took things myself, I paid for it myself, I found my own money, no one supervised, and there was a sentence written on the box " There was a dime missing from the box " .
But every night someone is responsible for counting, never less money, but only more money. Because many students throw money into the box, suddenly forget how much money they lost, and are afraid to take more, think about it, some students, when they see that there is no change, the money will be thrown in.
This is prudence. A true gentleman can be cautious in his words and deeds and always be sober even where others cannot see or hear.
"Prudent independence" is an important concept in traditional Chinese culture, reflecting the importance attached to ethics. Prudence and independence is a higher level of self-discipline, and it is the highest self-cultivation law of the Chinese for thousands of years.
<h1>01</h1>
If a person can be bright and upright when he is alone, without selfish distractions, he is a true gentleman and has cultivated at home. This is the difference between a gentleman and a villain.
In "Poetry Xiaoya Xiangbo", there is such a story:
On a stormy night, the house of the neighbor's widow was damaged by the rain, and she had to go to Uncle Yan's house to take shelter from the rain.
After Uncle Yan let her enter the house, he used candles to illuminate them, and after the candles were burned out, they burned firewood, and when the firewood was burned out, Uncle Yan did not hesitate to extract the firewood and grass that covered the roof to illuminate them, and treated them with courtesy all night.
Uncle Yan, who does not cheat in the dark room, is precisely because he is sober and calm and self-sustaining at all times, so that he is not confused in his heart, not trapped in emotion, and does not cross the thunder pool.
"The University" said: "It is not good for a villain to live idly." This means that when the villain is alone, he may have some unwholesome thoughts.
And when he sees a gentleman with "prudence and independence", he often disguises himself and "hides his unkindness" . But such a cover can hide from the first day, can not hide fifteen, and will eventually expose the horse's feet. Because man's words and deeds are often consistent with his heart, emotions are in the middle and outward. The gentleman who practices "prudence and independence" is sincere in his heart and righteous in his heart, so he is consistent in knowledge and deeds, and his words and deeds are consistent, giving people a kind of "mighty and powerful" freedom and solemnity.
"Prudence and independence" is a kind of inner contemplation and self-examination, and a kind of self-conscious cultivation. So the ancients
"Three provinces in one day and my body" is this truth. Take a moment every day to be alone, look at yourself, ask yourself what you did wrong today, and whether you remember the lessons. In order to achieve "not to pass the past", this is self-cultivation, but also self-motivation. The Confucian principles of "knowing shame and then being brave" and "reforming oneself" all illustrate the principle that a person often reflects on himself and corrects when he knows his mistakes.
Zeng Guofan said: Only with a reverential heart can we stop doing something. If you have reverence for the Heavenly Dao, you can go with the flow and avoid evil. Only by having reverence for the authenticity can we have the virtue of the law and the heart of forgiveness. Only by revering humanity can we seek the same breath and respond with the same voice. Only when we have reverence for life will we cherish life and live in the present. Reverence for ancestors, parents, and teachers can make the family way prosperous and the teacher way be passed on.
Prudence requires a person's enduring self-discipline. With goals and directions, we must be able to withstand interference and temptation, know restraint, and even more must understand what can and cannot be done.
People are narcissistic and self-respecting, self-protective, and seeing people and things is always not far from their own point of view, so it is easy to reflect on "prudence", it is easy to be cautious in words and deeds, it is easy to understand mistakes, but it is difficult to change - people always have to find a lot of reasons for themselves to justify themselves, do not want to admit it, and defend themselves. It can be seen that it is not an easy task to know the mistakes and correct them, and it is difficult to do without great perseverance.
When a person is proud of the spring breeze, it is even more difficult to change it. Therefore, if you know your mistakes, you will change them, in fact, it is not easy to defeat your own biggest enemy. If a person knows that he is wrong and does not change, he does not dare to face himself and has no self-knowledge. On the contrary, it reflects a person's true cultivation and courage.
<h1>02</h1>
The Records of The Transmission of The Book of Xue Kan records such an incident: "Kando repents. "
"Kan" refers to Xue Kan, a Ming Dynasty native, born in 1486 and died in 1546 at the age of 60. He was a disciple of Wang Yangming, who served as a pedestrian and was an official in Henan Province to supervise the imperial history. Because he once lectured at Zhonglishan (in present-day Chaozhou, Guangdong Province), he was known as "Mr. Zhongli".
"Much regret" means that Xue Kan is a person who often regrets. Why regret it? Of course, I often reflect on myself and find that sometimes what I have done violates my conscience, so I regret it.
Lin Shu (1852-1924), also known as Qinnan ,号畏庐, was a native of Minxian County , Fujian ( present-day Fuzhou ) . Lin Shu once used his personal account to translate 246 foreign novels such as "The Relics of the Traviata Girl", which was popular in the sea and luoyang paper was expensive. However, in the modern cultural history, his contribution as an ancient writer also deserves great attention.
Lin Shu himself was very accomplished in ancient Chinese, and when he was teaching at Peking University, "most of the people who revered Wei and Jin called Taiyan a master; while taking the Tang and Song dynasties, they pushed Lin Shu to be a zongmeng" (Qian Jibo, "The Ancient Texts of Lin Shu"). Faced with the challenges of the New Culture Movement, he rose to the occasion and tried to prolong the lifeblood of ancient Chinese. Although his appeal did not bear fruit at the time, his many efforts to illustrate the spiritual art of the ancient chinese are still quite enlightening today.
Lin Shu has been reading books since childhood, erudite and strong, able to poetry, able to write, able to draw, and has the title of "crazy life". Because of his good ancient writing, he was highly regarded by wu Rulun, a master of the Tongcheng Sect, and was hired as a chair at Peking University. He never went to England, but he translated the La Traviata (i.e., the Remains of the Traviata in Paris) in chinese, which had a great influence on the saying that poor Traviata, cut off the intestines of the. Yan Fu and Kang Youwei praised the exquisiteness of their translations, the sincerity of their feelings, and the extensive influence, and Zheng Zhenduo and Zhou Zuoren recognized them as pioneers of modern Chinese literature, and the Shakespearean plays performed in China at that time were basically based on Lin Shu's translations, and the writings of Su Manshu and Zhou Zuoren were also influenced by him. A translation made Lin Shu famous, and Lin Shu, who did not know foreign languages, translated 180 foreign language novels since the end of the Qing Dynasty. The event that brought him to the forefront of the times was a debate between him and his New Youth fans over the existence and abolition of ancient texts (1919), which made him the target of public criticism.
However, his evaluation has always been to destroy more than reputation, and the hat of "reactionary literati" has always been worn on his head. What's going on?
Lin is best known for his "negative" role in the New Culture Movement. At that time, Lin Shu believed that learning to write good vernacular was the basis for writing good vernacular, while radical new cultural activists completely denied wen yanwen in order to achieve the purpose of improving culture, and the controversy between the two sides became increasingly fierce. In fact, the new cultural movement began with a loud voice and a small raindrop, and it was hoped that there would be a greater confrontation to push the movement to a climax. And Lin Hao, under the impulse, has become a "target". It is said that Yan Fu once persuaded his fellow villager Lin Hao not to compete with the descendants, believing that in the revolutionary era, he would go with the flow. But Lin Shu did not hold back in the end, and he became more and more emotional. In early 1919, he published a new declaration in Shanghai.
Serialized novels "Jingsheng" and "Demon Dream". The former wrote three students: Tian Qimei of Anhui, alluding to Chen Duxiu; Jin Xinyi of Zhejiang, alluding to Qian Xuantong; and Di Mo, newly returned from the Americas, through philosophy, is an allusion to Hu Shi. The three men drank and talked in Taoran Pavilion and attacked Kong Meng and Gu Wen. Suddenly, with a loud noise, the "great husband" Jingsheng appeared, denouncing them as "words of beasts", and the three of them retreated under humiliation. After the article was published, Hu Shi said: "This kind of talk can very well bring out the psychology and discussion of the Wei Dao gentlemen at that time. "
In the novel "Demon Dream", there are three "three masters among ghosts": the principal Yuanxu, alluding to Cai Yuanpei; the provost Tian Cabinet, alluding to Chen Duxiu; and the vice provost Qin II, referring to Hu Shi. In the novel, the "Three Masters of the Ghosts" cursed more rudely than "Jingsheng", saying that "the two eyes of the tian cabinet are like owls, and the long wheezing is like a dog; Qin II is like the seed of Ossi, with deep eyes and a high nose", which is extremely ugly. Lin Shu regarded the three as corrupt characters who were often like beasts, so they were called "Demon Dreams".
The two novels were published in Shanghai by Zhang Houzai, a former student of Lin Hao's early years when he was teaching at the Five Cities Middle School, when he was already a student of Peking University. Because the novel attacked the president, provost and professor of "Peking University", the novel caused public outrage in "Peking University" after it was published. Although there were still a few months before graduation, in the public uproar, Zhang Houzai was expelled from Peking University for "communicating in Shanghai and damaging the reputation of the school".
Lin Shu was ashamed of the involvement of students. Therefore, he wrote to various newspapers, openly admitted his mistake of cursing people, and apologized to Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi and others. Chen Duxiu responded positively to this: "Lin Qinnan wrote to various newspapers to admit his own mistakes in cursing people, and it is very admirable to have the courage to change like this." "
At that time, Lin Shu was already a 68-year-old man, and also a "famous resident" in the cultural circles, and with his advanced age and seniority, he apologized to the young people of the new culture, so he knew that he was wrong and changed it, and did not hesitate to apologize publicly, which was also rare.
Soon, the New Culture Movement achieved rapid development, and the vernacular language gained authentic status. New literary theories and vernacular literary works show the prospects and achievements of the new literary revolution. In 1920, the Ministry of Education of the Beiyang Government officially adopted the vernacular language in textbooks. Since then, Lin Shu has become a praying mantis blocking the car, and his opposition has become a joke.
Lin Shu is an old-school scholar, with the integrity of a scholar, cherishing his feathers, and being able to "do something and not do something", which has built a personality model worth looking up to for us. As Zheng Zhenduo praised in the article "Mr. Lin Qinnan": "He is the most laborious self-supporting person.
Lin Shu's ability to correct mistakes shows that he has not lost the "cautious independence" skills of traditional knowledge molecules, reflecting his heavy public morality and high self-cultivation.
<h1>03</h1>
Kant said that freedom is not arbitrary, but self-mastery.
The more self-disciplined, the more voice, the body and life are like this.
Japanese writer Haruki Murakami began writing at the age of 30, and has been writing for almost 40 years, creating a large number of works, classic and prolific.
Haruki Murakami has a habit of writing, he only writes 4,000 words a day, 400 words a page of paper, and stops every day when he writes to 10 pages.
In addition, he will take an hour a day to run, thunder and not move, it is this high degree of self-discipline that gives him the energy to continue to produce excellent works.
Many times, it is not excellent self-discipline, but you self-discipline, will become excellent. And those who are self-disciplined often can't bear to disappoint even God.
The author of "Empty Valley Orchid" said: "Only when we are alone will we become more aware that we are with all things." Cultivating yourself in solitude is the best way to improve yourself, and cultivating a better self.
In this life, only when people know how to speak carefully, act cautiously, be cautious and independent, and cultivate the three cautions well, can they be more stable and calm on the road of life!
There is a sentence in the "Zhou Yi": "The words of the Ji people are widowed." "The higher the spiritual level, the more people know how to speak carefully, see through but do not say broken, know people but do not judge people."
Caution is a very responsible practice, it is not to say goodbye, not to be silent, but after calm thinking and rationality.
In this life, talking is instinctive, and being able to talk is a skill.
Knowing how to speak carefully is a kind of wisdom that is as wise as foolishness, and it is also the most advanced cultivation on the road of life.
In the Ming Dynasty's "Yutang CongYu", a story of "Cao Ding is not allowed" is recorded. An official named Cao Ding caught a beautiful female thief in an operation to catch a thief.
On the way back, because it was too late to rush back to the county, he had to spend the night in a broken temple.
In the dead of night, the woman seduced Cao Ding many times, and in the face of a beautiful woman, Cao Ding's heart was also unstoppable.
But the principle in his heart reminded him not to do this, so Cao Ding wrote on the paper: "Cao Ding can't do it." "
This piece of paper was burned by him many times, written and burned, and finally spent a safe night.
In this materialistic world, we will face too many temptations, and if we are not careful, we are likely to fall into danger.
Only by staying sober and keeping one's self-duty can we stand higher and go further. Knowing how to act cautiously is not only a kind of demeanor, but also a kind of inner freedom and frankness.
Lu Jiuyuan, a famous philosopher of the Southern Song Dynasty, once said: "To be cautious and independent is not to deceive oneself." "The prudent and independent person, no matter when or where, will not cater to others, and will not indulge himself when he is alone.
They have a reverential heart for all things in the world, usually regulate their words and deeds, reflect on their own behavior, and do things without shame in heaven, earth, and in their hearts.
Prudence and independence is a state of life, maintaining oneself in loneliness and constantly cultivating oneself in loneliness.
In a person's self-discipline, there are infinite possibilities, and the degree of your self-discipline determines the height of your life.
Everyone has the right to choose how to live, and some people think that life is short, and it is no problem to have fun in time, but I want to tell you that a self-disciplined life is actually better, because when you know where you want to go and run with all your might, the whole world will make way for you.
The people who can really reach the top and look at the distance will always be those who have no distractions and insist on moving forward.
May we truly become self-disciplined selves, live as we like, and live the life we want.
There is no short way to go in life, but every step you take counts.
The more diligent, the harder you work; the more self-disciplined, the better.
References: Ang Ann Lee, Peking University Cultivation Class