The wisdom of I Ching

Chapter 99 Don't be too greedy for profit——Don't benefit from it, or hit it.Be determined not to persevere, fierce

【Original Code】

Up to nine, don't benefit from it, or hit it.Be determined not to persevere, fierce.

"Xiang" said: Mo Yizhi, partial speech.Or hit it, from outside.

——"Book of Changes Yi"

【Interpretation】

The nine lines on the hexagram of "Yi" say: If you don't bring benefits to others, you still have to attack others.Holding such a mentality for a long time will be dangerous.

"Xiang Ci" says: Not giving benefits to others is talking about narrow-mindedness and selfishness.He also attacks others because some outsider wants to share his interests.

In real life, we behave in the world, and we should not attack others or make enemies with others for the sake of exclusive interests.If this is the case, there will be no good results. Instead, we should establish the belief of "being considerate of others and not harming others". Only in this way can life be long and smooth.If a person wants to get along well with others, he should have all kinds of good virtues. Selfishness, despicableness, and jealousy cannot win people's hearts, and they will be unpopular everywhere.

【Category】

Story [-]: Zhi Bo Suodi committed suicide

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a local nobleman named Zhibo in the state of Jin.He is brutal, unreasonable, and greedy.He himself originally had a large fief, but he still asked Wei Xuanzi for the land for no reason.

Wei Xuanzi hated Zhibo's behavior very much, so he did not agree to his request.One of his courtiers named Ren Zhang was very scheming, and said to Xuanzi, "You'd better give the land to Bo Zhi." Xuanzi didn't understand, and asked, "Why should I give him the land for nothing?"

Ren Zhang said: "His unreasonable demands will definitely arouse the fear of the neighbors, and the neighbors will hate him; if you give him land, he will become more arrogant, thinking that others are afraid of him, and he will despise him even more. opponents, and harass others more brazenly. Then his neighbors will unite against him because they hate him. If this is the case, he will not last long."

Ren Zhang paused when he said this, and seeing Xuanzi nodding in agreement, he went on to say: "The "Book of Zhou" said, 'If you want to defeat him, give him a little help for the time being; if you want to capture him, give him a little sweetness for the time being. ', that is the truth.

So, I said it's better to give him some land to make him more arrogant.If you don't give him land, he will take you as his target. In that case, it would be better to make all the people in the world against him and make him the target of everyone's attack. "

After Xuanzi heard this, he immediately agreed to Zhibo's request and gave him a large piece of land.Zhibo tasted the sweetness of gaining without fighting, so he reached out to Zhao for land, but Zhao refused, so he sent troops to besiege Jinyang.At this time, the Han and Wei families joined forces, joined forces with the Zhao family, and attacked internally and externally. Sure enough, as Ren Zhang expected, Bo Zhi was finally wiped out.

From this point of view, greed will bring dire consequences to oneself.

Story [-]: Deng Zhi's "win-win" thinking
During the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei was defeated in Guoting and retreated to Baidi City for a temporary stay.Before long he fell ill with grief and remorse.When he was seriously ill, Liu Bei sent people to Chengdu and invited Prime Minister Zhuge Liang and others to Baidi City to discuss the funeral.

Zhuge Liang sat by Liu Bei's bed, and Liu Bei said to him: "I have a prime minister, so I can be an emperor today. However, my knowledge is limited, I didn't listen to the prime minister, and I asked for failure. Thinking about it, I regret and hate. Now I am about to die, but my son Liu Chan is weak and incompetent, so I can only entrust important matters to the prime minister." He handed over the will written in advance to Zhuge Liang, begging him to do his best to assist the crown prince Liu Chan.

Zhuge Liang expressed to Liu Bei that he would do everything in his power to assist the young master and live up to Liu Bei's trust.In April of the third year of Zhangwu in the Shu Han Dynasty (223), after Liu Bei passed away, 17-year-old Liu Chan inherited the throne in Chengdu, changed his reign name to Jianxing, and granted Zhuge Liang the title of Marquis of Wuxiang.From then on, Zhuge Liang made decisions on all political matters in the Shu Han Dynasty.

It was Zhuge Liang's important strategic decision to unite Wu against Wei.It is a pity that the Shu-Wu alliance was severely damaged in the battle of Guoting.Zhuge Liang worried that Sun Quan would take advantage of Liu Bei's death to launch a surprise attack, so he considered sending someone to make peace with Soochow, but there was no such suitable candidate for a while.

One day, Deng Zhi came to see Zhuge Liang and said: "The lord is young, he has just ascended the throne, and the people's hearts are not at ease. If we want to complete the great cause of reunification, we should abandon the old grievances and make peace with Soochow. Without the worries of Donggu, we can go north and make progress. Central Plains. I don’t know how the prime minister thinks about it?”

Zhuge Liang was very happy when he heard Deng Zhi's words, and felt that Deng Zhi was very insightful, and Deng Zhi was also the ideal candidate to complete this mission.He smiled and said to Deng Zhi: "I have considered this matter for a long time, but unfortunately I have not found a suitable person to take on the important task of uniting Soochow. Since you understand the benefits of uniting Wu, you must be able to complete it well." This mission." So Deng Zhi was appointed as an envoy to Soochow.

When Deng Zhi arrived in Soochow, he begged to see Sun Quan. It happened that Wei Guo also sent envoys to Soochow, asking Sun Quan to join forces with Wei to attack Shu.Sun Quan was in a moment of hesitation, so he refused to meet Deng Zhi.Deng Zhi wrote to Sun Quan: "I am here this time not only for the benefit of Shu, but also for the benefit of Wu." Sun Quan then received him.

Deng Zhi analyzed the current situation to Sun Quan, saying: "Wu State has the Yangtze River as a natural barrier, and Shu State has mountains and rivers as a barrier. If the two countries reconcile and become each other's lips and teeth, their strength will increase. If you advance, you can take over the world, and if you retreat, you can stand on three feet. If Soochow and Wei are in an alliance, they will inevitably surrender to Wei. If they don’t listen, Wei will use this as an excuse to attack Soochow. area, it will no longer be the territory of the king.”

Hearing Deng Zhi's reasoning, Sun Quan replied, "I am very willing to make peace with Shu. I am afraid that the Lord of Shu is young and cowardly. I'm relieved." From then on, Wu and Shu Han formed an alliance to resist Cao Wei, and sent envoys to visit each other many times, constantly developing friendly alliances, which further consolidated the situation of the three kingdoms.

The biggest reason why Deng Zhi was able to successfully persuade Sun Quan to unite with Shu to resist Wei was that he put forward the idea of ​​"win-win" at the beginning: "Not only for the benefit of Shu, but also for the benefit of Wu." Then, he analyzed in detail Knowing the benefits of Lianshu to the state of Wu, Sun Quan willingly accepted the idea of ​​Lianshu to resist Wei, and Deng Zhi also satisfactorily completed the task entrusted to him by Zhuge Liang.

Story Three: Zhang Yu Doesn’t Want to Be an Enemy
Zhang Yu was originally the teacher of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty respected him a lot. He named him Marquis of Anchang, and presided over the government at the same time as Emperor Cheng's uncles Wang Feng and Wang Shang.But the Wang brothers relied on the power of the Queen Mother Wang Zhengjun, and they were good at government affairs.Zhang Yu felt that it was difficult to compete with him, so he repeatedly wrote to resign, but Emperor Cheng did not agree.So Zhang Yu came to "being an official and not taking charge of things", and concentrated on buying fields and land, increasing his family property, and lingering around in order to secure himself.But finally because of a piece of land, there was a conflict with Quyanghou Wanggen.At this time, due to frequent floods and droughts and earthquakes year after year, some ministers who were dissatisfied with the Wang family took advantage of the issue and committed the crime of Wang's dictatorship.Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty had long been secretly suspicious of the domineering Wang brothers, so he came to seek Zhang Yu's opinion.

Zhang Yu saw that the power of the Wang brothers was unshakable, and he was already old, and his children were all inferior and weak, so they were not the opponents of the Wang family. Why not take this opportunity to resolve the conflict and please the Wang family?So he said to Emperor Cheng: "Disasters and strange things are difficult for people to understand, and saints also avoid talking about them. These new juniors talk about it, so naturally don't believe him!"

Therefore, Emperor Cheng blamed the Wang family.After the Wang Gen brothers learned about this, they were really very happy, and their relationship with Zhang Yu also became close.As a result, Zhang Yu was not only rich and honored for life, but his descendants also held high official positions.

Don't take the initiative to attack others in life, this is a magic weapon to avoid disasters and protect yourself.Things in the power field are unpredictable, and it is difficult for anyone to predict the changes of the situation.A wise person can follow the long-term path of making fewer grievances, making fewer enemies, making more friends, and doing more practical things, and does not monopolize interests or attack others. This magic weapon for avoiding disasters is also worth learning in modern society.

【The Heart of the Book of Changes】

In life, if a person only cares about himself and thinks only for himself, then he will not have the magnetism to attract others, and will make others feel disgusted with him, and no one will like to associate with him.If we can work together towards a common goal in a harmonious atmosphere without wasting energy on trivial matters, the world will definitely be a better place.

A shrewd person can arrange the relationship of interest hierarchy and make it orderly.When we rush to get things done, our greed often disrupts the order, and we end up missing the most important things by wanting too much for what seems unimportant.

Selfishness is the nature of human beings. Everyone hopes that "everyone is for me", but they are unwilling to practice "I am for everyone". As a result, people lack a sense of security and love in society.People should help each other, rely on each other, and unite as one, so that they can not only make a career together, but also rely on each other to protect themselves.

Those who achieve great things will not be blinded by the temporary interests in front of them, and can clearly identify the priorities of things, so as to make correct choices.People with this kind of insight will be rich in officials and rich in business.

People who only focus on benefits often do not get real benefits.You can't do things without utilitarianism, but don't be too eager.If you are in a team, you must pay attention to the feelings of the people around you; if you run a business, you cannot make money as the only purpose, but also have a sense of responsibility and mission to the society, so that the public can truly accept it emotionally your product.

So when you have benefits, don't monopolize them, but share them with others, let alone attack others for the sake of benefits.When you get drawn into interpersonal conflicts, manipulative play, credit-taking, and petty fights, it drains your energy, affects your attitude, and wastes precious time.

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is really important to have a keen insight into what is truly valuable in life.

(End of this chapter)