Hong Yingming lived in the era, the Ming Dynasty has entered the late stage, this is the last unified feudal regime established by the Han nationality in Chinese history, the late Ming Dynasty due to the Donglin party dispute and natural disasters and external disasters, resulting in the decline of national strength, the decline of the dominance of the Ming Dynasty, corruption gradually became a norm, at the same time, the new citizen class expansion, commercial prosperity, scientific and technological progress, active thinking, free speech, social values began to turn to open luxury and lasciviousness. On the one hand, secular society and civilian society have replaced aristocratic society; on the other hand, the terrorist totalitarian society marked by Jinyiwei, East Factory, West Factory and Inner Factory has become the mainstream. This can be seen in the "Golden Plum Bottle" that came out a little earlier in Cai Gen Tan. Some insightful intellectuals, after being frustrated in their careers, have retreated into the jianghu. They are not willing to collude with those in power, nor are they willing to cater to the secular social atmosphere against their will, so there are a large number of works that express the high and detached feelings of the hermit. Hong Yingming is the representative of these intellectuals. Cai Gen Tan is a collection of quotations collected and compiled by Hong Yingming on cultivation, life, life, and birth, which is a rare sermon of ancient times. This book reflects the Ming Dynasty intellectuals' idea of the unity of confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, or in other words, this book is adhering to the Taoist culture with the Tao as the base, blending the Confucian middle way, the Taoist idea of non-action, and the idea of the birth of the Interpreter, combined with their own experience, to form a set of rules for entering the world, which has an incredible subtle power for people's right mind cultivation and moral cultivation.
"Don't be shocked, watch the flowers blossom and fall before the court; go to stay unintentional, look at the clouds in the sky and look at the clouds and clouds", it comes from Hong Yingming's famous training book "Cai Gen Tan", and the Ming ren Chen Jiru mentioned it as Hong Yingming's inscription in "The Little Memoirs of the Window". This pair of YangLian is deeply loved by the world for its profound artistic conception and calmness, and has become a self-cultivation association that has influenced future generations. When I first read this famous couplet, I was deeply infected by the atmospheric and free temperament in Hong Yingminglian, and the kind of calm and leisure that flowed between the lines, the good and wandering, not a person who had experienced the wind and frost and the ups and downs of the eunuch sea, it was difficult to see the world so really. This link writes the earth, the upper link writes the heavens, the heavens and the earth are one, and the world is written so thoroughly, in which the calm and free atmosphere is especially unattainable by the vulgar.
"Spoiled and not alarmed" means not to think about pampering or humiliation, not to care about gains and losses. These four words are derived from Lao Tzu: "If you are shocked, if you are frightened, you are insulted." But it is used in the opposite sense. Hong Yingming compares the spoils and losses of life to the flowers planted in front of the court, which will not bloom because of your love, nor will they fall for your neglect, everything depends on natural nature. The same is true of being a human being, like a flower, not to be proud of others, nor to be afraid to be humiliated by others.
The concept of "spoiling and not being shocked" has long been embodied among the ancient doctors and is not unfamiliar. We must be very familiar with the Song Dynasty writer Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang LouJi", right? There is such a sentence in the text: "Dens Lou also has a relaxed heart, spoils and forgets all insults, and puts the wine in the wind, and its joy is the one who is happy." The "spoiled and insulted forget" in the text and the "spoiled and unfazed" in the joint express a kind of flattery or humiliation that does not care at all, often referring to a transcendent attitude of mastery.
Cai Gen Tan is a quotation work by Hong Yingming, which integrates Confucian self-improvement, Buddhist forbearance and grandeur, and Taoist transcendent and mysterious ideas, and contains rich traditional Chinese cultural wisdom. There's a lot of such glittering language in the book. To cite a few words: "To make one step higher in the world, to regress is the root of progress; to treat others with a generous point is a blessing, and to benefit others is the foundation of self-interest"; "Under the heart of merit and wealth, you can get rid of the world; only when you put the heart of morality and benevolence can you enter the sacred"; "The wind comes to thin the bamboo, and the wind passes and the bamboo does not leave a sound; the geese cross the cold pool, and the geese go and the pond does not leave a shadow." Therefore, when a gentleman comes, his heart begins to appear, and when things go, his heart goes with emptiness. These quotations all embody the concept embodied in the Yang Lian, which is the so-called "bite the root of the vegetable, Pepsi can be done", and the guidelines it put forward in terms of self-cultivation and handling have influenced the descendants of the dragon from generation to generation.
"To stay unintentionally" means not to pay too much attention to the going and staying of power positions, and to care too much about the rise and fall of official positions. Hong Yingming also pursued fame and fortune, but finally found that in life, the benefits of his career are just passing clouds, in fact, it is not so important, the key is to live valuable. It is like a white cloud floating in the sky, and it does not care about the fame and fortune of the world, but just rolls or relaxes with the direction of the wind, or floats or scatters, and so on.
This also reminds me of a story in "Zhuangzi Tian Zi fang": The god of Taishan, Shoulder Wu, asked Sun Shu'ao: "You have served as Ling Yin three times but have not shown glory, and you have not shown a sad look when you have been deposed three times. Uncle Sun smiled and said, "Where am I doing anything outstanding?" I think that the arrival of the official lords need not be pushed away, and their departure cannot be prevented. I think that neither gain nor loss comes from myself, so there is no look of sorrow, and I wonder whether this knighthood fell on others or on me. If it falls on others, it has nothing to do with me; if it falls on me, it has nothing to do with others. I am at ease, I am looking around with great ambition, where is the leisure to take care of the dignity and inferiority of people? ”
This can be said that Hong Yingming's promotion rules for the Ming Dynasty officialdom have gone from discouraged to cold-eyed. With other outstanding talents, at the moment, he has not even found an official and a half-job, in addition to his indifference to his career, there is also the darkness of the official field. A sentence of "to stay unintentional, look at the clouds in the sky" is said neatly and happily, and it is undoubtedly a cooling agent and a clear needle for those who are still struggling or troubled by the official career, who are tired and overwhelmed in the deception. Everything is a dream flower, the moon in the water, all the glory and disgrace, all the fame and fortune will pass, he uneasy heart, watch the flowers bloom and fall, look at the clouds and roll away. The sky is high and the earth is different, which means timeless.
Hong Yingming's pair of Yang Lian belongs to Xiao Li Lian, which explains his perception of life in a deep and simple tone. We can also see that Hong Yingming's heart is open-minded, open-minded and ethereal, which is also the high cultivation and great wisdom of life. Objectively speaking, life in the world, many times, the career of progress and retreat, spoiling gains and losses, is not easy to control for themselves, if you do not be shocked, to stay unintentional, you need to have a wise feeling of fame and fortune, and the wisdom of life that is comfortable. Liu Yuxi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, was demoted to Langzhou, only 34 years old, and must have been very depressed, but he was at ease with the encounter, enjoyed in the bitterness, and had a quiet feeling. Liu Zongyuan's fate was similar to his, the same was degraded for ten years, reunited in Chang'an, Liu Zongyuan was haggard, but Liu Yuxi was full of vitality. Equally talented, but with different mentalities, there is such a gap, and in the end it is still yourself who is punished. It is no wonder that many people in later generations who are not satisfied with their careers will hang this high in the hall to warn themselves and enlighten others. Hong Yingming would have no regrets if jiuquan knew.
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