The wisdom of I Ching

Chapter 113 Don’t Procrastinate Too Much—Three Years Old, Vicious

【Original Code】

On the sixth, tie the emblem rein, on the thorns, not allowed at the age of three, fierce.

"Xiang" said: "The upper six lose the way, and the three-year-old is also fierce."

——"Book of Changes Kan"

【Interpretation】

The sixth line on the hexagram of "Kan" says: To arrest criminals with twisted ropes and throw them into prison, it is still unavoidable for many years, fierce. "Three" here is a false reference, "Three years old, fierce" means that a wish cannot be realized for many years, and there must be a reason for it, which will bring losses.

"Xiang Zhuan" said: The upper six lines lost the way out of danger, isolated and helpless, and the danger will last for many years.

The essence of the upper six lines is two points: one is to grasp the present, and not to delay doing things for too long, otherwise there will be changes in the light, and disasters in the serious; the other is to make things serve people and not make people tired of things.

Benjamin Franklin said: "Don't put off today's work until tomorrow." We must have a preset approximate deadline for anything we do, and we must not delay things indefinitely.You must know that anything will change if it is delayed for a long time, and it may even lead to failure.

To deal with the world in life, we must keep a clear mind and be prepared at all times, and never delay any opportunity.This way you can gain more initiative in your life.When doing things, we must have a style of being decisive and never procrastinating, and we must also have a down-to-earth, step-by-step strategy. The perfect combination of the two is the choice of those who achieve great things.

【Category】

Story [-]: Ban Chao made a decisive decision

In 73 A.D., Banchao of the Eastern Han Dynasty sent the Western Regions to Shanshan. The king of Shanshan treated him very politely, but his attitude changed soon.Ban Chao said to his subordinates: "Shanshan's attitude towards us has changed. This must be because the Huns sent envoys, so the king of Shanshan was hesitant. If Shanshan captured us and gave them to the Huns, we It is very likely that we will be buried in the mouth of jackals. If you don’t enter the tiger’s den, how can you catch tiger cubs? The only way is to use the night to attack the Huns’ envoys with fire, and not let them know how many people we have, and they will definitely panic. Once the envoys of the Huns are destroyed, Shanshan will naturally be terrified, and the great work will be accomplished."

So Ban Chao led his subordinates to the camp of the Huns envoys, and it happened that a strong wind blew that night.Ban Chao ordered ten men to bring drums and hide behind the Huns envoy's house.It is agreed to see the signal and then beat the drum and shout.The camp of the Xiongnu envoy was in chaos. Ban Chao killed three people, and his subordinates killed the Xiongnu envoy and more than [-] people under his command. The others were also burned to death.

The next day, Ban Chao met King Shanshan and showed him the head of the Hun envoy. King Shanshan was terrified and willing to establish a good relationship with the Han Dynasty, so he handed over the prince as a hostage to show his loyalty.

This is an example of decisiveness and great success in ancient military struggles.In the ever-changing political, military, economic, and social activities of modern times, critical situations may arise, and decisive decisions should be made at this moment.Indecisive, hard to make up your mind, you can only regret for a lifetime because of the missed opportunity.

Story [-]: Xiang Yu's Indecision

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang invaded Guanzhong and occupied Xianyang.But he didn't expect that Xiang Yu would appear in Guanzhong soon. When he heard that Xiang Yu was going to attack him, he was very shocked.Judging from the current situation, it was impossible for Liu Bang to defeat Xiang Yu's army, so he asked Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Bo to mediate in the middle, and made an appointment to go to Xiang Yu to negotiate in person.

At the Hongmen Banquet, Fan Zeng repeatedly winked at Xiang Yu to kill Pei Gong, and used the jade he wore as a sign of killing to hint at Xiang Yu. He did this three times in a row, but Xiang Yu remained silent and did not respond.Seeing that something was wrong, Fan Zeng got up and went outside and said to Xiang Zhuang, "King Xiang is too soft-hearted to do it himself. You go into the tent and assassinate him by toasting Duke Pei and dancing your sword. If you don't do that , you will all be exterminated by the nine clans."

Xiang Zhuang entered the account and toasted Liu Bang.After toasting, he asked Xiang Yu for instructions: "Your Majesty is drinking with Pei Gong. There is nothing in the army for entertainment. Please allow this general to perform a sword dance to entertain the guests."

Xiang Yu said, "Okay!" Xiang Zhuang then drew his sword and danced. Xiang Bo saw what Xiang Zhuang wanted, so he also drew his sword and danced.When the two danced swords, Xiang Bo kept covering Pei Gong with his body, so Xiang Zhuang had no chance to assassinate Pei Gong.

Xiang Yu, who "pulls the mountain with strength and overwhelms the world", is brave and intrepid, and misses a good opportunity at the Hongmen Banquet to let Liu Bang escape.As a result, Liu Bang had the opportunity to strengthen his power and forced Xiang Yu to commit suicide by the Wujiang River, thus successfully establishing the Western Han Dynasty.

The two sentences often said by the ancients, "The general is outside, the emperor's fate is not accepted" and "Sharply cut the mess", are all about the issue of decision-making.In the face of major situations, decision-making must be prudent, and when time permits, one should think twice before acting, and when time is tight, one should have the courage to make a decisive decision.

Story [-]: Yuan Shao was suspicious and missed the opportunity

When Cao Cao marched east to Liu Bei, people had different opinions. They were worried that Yuan Shao would attack from the rear after leaving the army, making it impossible for Cao Jun to fight and lose the ground to rely on when he retreated.Cao Cao said: "Yuan Shao is dull and suspicious by nature, and he will not attack us quickly. But Liu Bei is a new force, and the hearts of the people have not yet completely surrendered to him. If we seize the time and attack him quickly, he will undoubtedly be defeated. This is the critical moment of life and death, and the opportunity must not be lost." So, he decided to send troops east to conquer Liu Bei.

Tian Feng, Yuan Shao's counselor, really advised Yuan Shao: "The tiger is hunting a deer, and the bear has entered the tiger's den and pounced on the tiger's cubs. The tiger cannot enter the deer, and cannot get the tiger's cubs when retreating. Now that Cao Cao is attacking Liu Bei, the rear must be empty. The general has millions of troops and thousands of cavalry. He can lead the army to take Xuchang directly and destroy Cao Cao's lair. The battlefield changes in an instant. With the sound of the drum, victory is in sight. When Cao Cao hears that we have captured Xuchang, he will definitely lose Liu Bei and die. Return to Xuchang. We occupy the city, and Liu Bei is attacking outside. The head of the rebel Cao Cao will definitely be hung on the general's flagpole. If this opportunity is lost, after Cao Cao returns to the country, he will recuperate, accumulate food, and recruit talents. It would be a different situation.”

But Yuan Shao didn't listen to the advice, and refused to join the army because of his son's illness.Tian Feng tapped the ground with his crutches and sighed: "It's such a good opportunity, but it's lost because of the baby, what a pity!"

Cao Cao's foresight and judgment are far better than Yuan Shao's, which is the root cause of the difference in success or failure between the two in the war. "The opportunity cannot be missed, and the time will never come." No matter in ancient times, or now, or in the future, this truth will never change.

Story [-]: Lu Xun's motto "do it quickly"

In 1918, Lu Xun published the short story "A Madman's Diary" in the "New Youth" magazine, and he used the pen name "Lu Xun" for the first time.When a friend asked about the meaning of the word "Lu Xun", Lu Xun replied: The reason for using this name is to take the meaning of foolishness and swiftness.He thinks that he is relatively clumsy, and his efficiency cannot keep up with those with better talents, whether in terms of learning or doing things.In this case, only by being more diligent and doing things quickly can we achieve the same effect as others within a certain period of time.

Lu Xun's writing experience is "immediately".Lu Xun wrote in his "Diary on the Horse": "... However, since I agreed, I have to think of a way; after thinking about it, I feel that there are occasional feelings, and when I am lazy, I put it down and forget it. If Immediately writing, I am afraid it is a kind of miscellaneous feeling, so I made up my mind: as soon as I think of it, I will write it down and send it immediately, and it will be counted as my drawing book.”

One month before his death, he wrote an article called "Death", saying that "something that did not exist before" appeared in his life, and he had the idea of ​​"doing it quickly" for everything, "because unconsciously In the process, I remembered my age."The experience that Lu Xun brought to us is valuable, and it is valuable in "immediately" and "doing it quickly".

Doing things like procrastination is a very bad habit.Procrastination is hugely destructive and the most dangerous of all vices for a person who wants to succeed. It can kill people's motivation.Once you start procrastinating, it's easy to procrastinate again until it becomes an ingrained bad habit.Therefore, we must act actively, act decisively, and get rid of the bad habits of laziness and procrastination.

【The Heart of the Book of Changes】

In real life, we often hear someone say something like this: "I'll wait and see, maybe the situation will get better." A person who can say this kind of thing shows that he has fallen into inertia.For these people, it seems to have become their usual way of working.They are always "tomorrow after tomorrow", so life is wasted in mediocrity.

If you are a habit of procrastinating, you are by no means a good person.If a person deliberately procrastinates and avoids, he can find thousands of reasons why things cannot be completed.If you find that you often make excuses for not getting something done, or come up with thousands of reasons to justify it, you should be alert: now is the time to face the reality and do things.

We must grasp the present and achieve "today's work, today's end".Doing it now means success, and doing it later may mean failure.When we do anything, we must have a clear time plan, and we must cherish every minute and every second, and we must hold the attitude of "an inch of time is an inch of gold" in our hearts.If you always procrastinate in doing things, no matter what you do, you are doomed to fail.One of the ways to overcome worry is to do it now!Actions can affect every area of ​​your life.It can help you seize precious moments and help you accomplish those things you don't want to do but have to do.And once these opportunities are lost, they will never come back.

In the long river of everyone's life, the most precious thing is "now", grasping the "now" is equivalent to seizing the time, and only by doing things can we achieve success.If things are delayed for a long time, accidents may happen, and there may even be disasters.So we need to do everything possible not to procrastinate, and to take action as soon as positive thoughts appear in our minds, so that laziness has no possibility of taking advantage of it.

Actions may not necessarily bring satisfactory results, but without action there will be no results at all.Therefore, if you want to be successful, you must start by taking action. When you develop the good habit of "do it now", you will also grasp the essence of life.

(End of this chapter)