12 Mindfulness Lessons Listened to at Tsinghua University

Chapter 21 Yes and No (3)
Su Dongpo's reputation in history is not only due to his literary talent, but also his moral integrity, personality and rough fate, all of which are fascinating.With Su Dongpo's talent and morality, he has never reached the highest level of the ancient scholar-officials, which can be called "unrecognized talent", and the reason is that he and Foyin said: he can't learn to raise a villain as a gentleman.

There are villains everywhere in society, and history is nothing more than scenes of confrontations between gentlemen and villains.No matter where and in what field, there are villains, and most of the time, villains are still in power.And no matter whether the villain is in power or not, as long as the villain is following you, you will suffer a lot if you are not careful.Because the reason why a villain is called a villain is not because of his small size, but because of his small mind, he can't tolerate others, and he must retaliate.The reason why villains are called villains is that they have many bad qualities and "capabilities" that ordinary people can't match, such as despicable and shameless, taking advantage of others' danger, sowing discord, and so on.It is of course a good thing if you can catch all villains in one go, but villains are often very difficult to deal with, because they will not abide by the laws of fairness and justice at all, they will only do bad things secretly, making you hard to guard against.Therefore, we must pay attention to some "strategies" when dealing with villains-raising them as gentlemen is a good way.

To get along with villains, you must first learn to protect yourself, and the best way to protect yourself is to stay away from them.There is a saying called "Dancing with Wolves", if you have the conditions, you must not think about dancing with villains. Facts have proved that this is more dangerous than seeking skin with tigers.

The reason why most villains become villains is because they have no ability. If they don't rely on flattery, they won't be able to rise up. If they don't rely on being greedy for petty gains, they may have problems eating.For such a villain, we should tolerate it appropriately, instead of having to confront each other and draw a clear line without giving way.Think about it, if villains can get what they want in an open and honest manner, will they still be villains?And you move their cheese without any strategy, forcing them to have nowhere to retreat, it's no wonder they don't rush with you.

Relatively speaking, villains often understand villains better than gentlemen, and the treacherous minister Qin Hui is one of them.Feng Menglong, a writer of the Ming Dynasty, recorded in "Think Tank Bu" that when Qin Hui was in power, someone forged a letter of introduction from Qin Hui to him and went to the prefect of Yangzhou to deceive him.Unexpectedly, the prefect of Yangzhou was also unambiguous, and found the flaw on the spot, and arrested this person and gave it to Qin Hui.Surprisingly, after Qin Hui saw this person, instead of pursuing him, he rewarded him with a petty official.Others are puzzled, saying that this person is cheating people in the name of the prime minister, if you don't fix him, how can you reward him?Qin Hui said, you don't know that.Those who have the guts to lie to others under my banner are definitely not ordinary people. If we don’t give him an official job and restrain him, he might go to the Kingdom of Jin or Xixia. This kind of person knows the Song Dynasty In the end, it is likely to cause harm to our country.

Perhaps in order to find some basis for Qin Hui's words, Feng Menglong also narrated another story at the same time: the famous "Fan Zhongyan, who worries about the world's worries first, and enjoys the world's joys later", made a similar mistake.When Fan Zhongyan went to the northwest, there were two scholars who asked someone to engrave their poems on the stone tablet, and then asked someone to drag the stone tablet past Fan Zhongyan's door on purpose, hoping to attract the attention of Mr. Fan.Fan Zhongyan saw it, and felt that their poems were of a certain level, but he always thought that recommending himself in this way was not done by a gentleman, and his behavior was a bit suspicious, so he didn't reason about them.As a result, these two scholars fled to Xixia and wrote poems everywhere, seeing that they had not made their debut in Song Dynasty, and soon attracted the attention of the king of Xixia, and they both became middle-level officials.Because they had some skills and knew the Song Dynasty very well, they quickly helped Xixia to become stronger and caused a lot of border troubles to the Song Dynasty.

Of course, we cannot say that Qin Hui is right and Fan Zhongyan is wrong.But just as Feng Menglong said, subordinates often have superior wisdom, and Qin Hui's logic is also tenable when it comes to matters.We must guard against villains, but we cannot easily label others as villains.

In addition, the reason why we call some people villains instead of calling them bad people is that most villains are just some not very good people.A villain is just someone who stands between a gentleman and a villain.Most people in life are this type of person, but to varying degrees.Villains often have a gentleman side.Many good things in the world are sometimes done by villains.To use a revolutionary saying, villains are those who can be won over, but those who go astray.From this point of view, we should raise them as kings.Otherwise, we cannot win them over, lead them, infect them, save them.If more people think this way, our society will definitely have fewer villains.

6.Know the white, keep the black, act the gray
Anyone who wants to be a reporter is a doer.People who run to the library for nothing, I'm sorry, don't be a reporter.Those who fear that the world will not be chaotic and hope that something will happen every day are suitable to be reporters; those who hope to be quiet are not suitable to be reporters.Breaking the casserole and asking the end is a major quality of a reporter.Americans have a creed that when your mother says she loves you, you have to verify it.Any facts and information obtained must be verified, and there are no natural and reliable facts.Your mother said "I love you", true or false?This is the quality of a reporter, to be curious about everything.Lu Yuegang made a big move recently and published a book about New Oriental.All the people, all the directors of New Oriental came to Lu Yuegang and wept bitterly, and they also told Lu Yuegang some things that they would not talk about internally.When the manuscript came out, they were taken aback and said, "I didn't ask you to write this."

——Li Datong (Senior Editor of China Youth Daily, once gave a speech at Tsinghua University)
Know what is right and keep what is black - these two sentences are from Chapter 28 of "Tao Te Ching", and the following "do what is ashes" was added by me.

Laozi’s original text is very long, but there are only three core points: teach people to know the male and keep the female, know the honor and keep the disgrace, and know the white and keep the black. These three basically have only one meaning, and the most representative one is also the most respected by later generations. It means knowing the white and keeping the black.

As for knowing the white and keeping the black, the simple point is that I know what is white, but I must be willing to stick to the black, as if I don’t know.Regarding this famous saying, the interpretations of different schools and schools in later generations are very different, but everyone agrees on one thing, that is, this is a very necessary attitude in life.

If it is not for the necessity of being in the world, or if it is not for the sake of wealth and life, then knowing the white and keeping the black is not only not wisdom, but also a shame.Black is black, white is white, this is the truth that all kindergarten children know.But the truth can hurt sometimes, even in kindergarten.

For example, Duncan, a legendary woman in the 19th century, was straightforward and innocent when she was a child, and she was surprisingly frank.One year at Christmas, the school held a celebration meeting. While distributing candies, the teacher said: "Children, this is a gift from Santa Claus..." Duncan stood up immediately after hearing this, and said solemnly: "Liar! There is no Santa Claus in the world." Although the teacher was very angry, he suppressed the anger in his heart and changed his words: "Only good girls who believe in Santa Claus can get candy." "I don't care for candy." Duncan replied.As a result, the teacher was furious, not only did not give her candy, but also punished Duncan.

Duncan's encounter is by no means accidental, and there are many such examples in real life.It should be said that the society needs defenders who know the white and keep the white, but sometimes, knowing the white and keeping the white will not only fail to defend the Tao, but will also waste their own enthusiasm and even blood.Therefore, it is not advisable to know the white and keep the white.If you want to be a successful person, you must learn to know the white and keep the black when necessary.

The story of Chao Cuo, a famous official in the Western Han Dynasty, and the father Yan, the master, is very representative.After Han Jingdi came to the throne, his favorite minister Chao Cuo suggested that Jingdi cut down the vassal.After the news came out, not only was it strongly opposed by the princes and kings, but many princes and kings also hated Chao Cuo deeply.Emperor Han Jing was worried that the conflict would intensify, so he hesitated very much, but Chao Cuo insisted repeatedly, and finally persuaded Emperor Jing.

Before Emperor Jing finally took action, Chao Cuo's father rushed from his hometown to Chang'an to persuade Chao Cuo not to "separate flesh and blood", but Chao Cuo said: "If you don't cut down the feudal clan, the Liu family's world will not be preserved." Chao Cuo His father said angrily: "You only know how to protect Liu's family, but you don't care about our Chao family?"Later, he really obeyed Chao's father's words-in the third year of Emperor Jing, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, united with the other six countries, gathered hundreds of thousands of troops, and rebelled under the banner of "Qing Jun's side, Zhu Chao's fault". At the "invitation" of the six countries, Chao Cuo was beheaded.But the princes and kings did not withdraw their troops at this point, and Emperor Han Jing realized that the princes' rebellion was not because of Chao Cuo's cutting of the vassal.Although Zhou Yafu later suppressed the rebellion.But after this battle, Emperor Han Jing no longer dared to lightly mention cutting the feudal clan.

It was not until the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the minister Zhu Fuyan proposed a new solution to solve this problem, which is the famous "Tweeting Order".Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted his suggestion, and as expected, he won the support of all the princes and children, and solved this difficult problem skillfully and effectively.

Regarding Zhu Fuyan and Chao Cuo, it is difficult for us to say who is right and wrong, and who is more noble. Comparing the two, some people may admire the upright and courageous Chao Cuo more.But Chao Cuo not only failed to accomplish anything, but also died a bad death. It seems that sometimes, we must learn to know the white and keep the black, otherwise, although the world is big, where can we go to reason?
In life, people often use "black and white to eat both" to describe those who have "capability".In fact, there are not only black and white in this world, but also a gray area.Whether we can grasp this gray area well and treat specific situations in a specific way is not the foundation of being a human being, but it is a necessity for us to walk in life.

Many people have seen the yin-yang fish of Taoism, and they understand to some extent the principle that there is yang within yin, yin within yang, and the mutual transformation of yin and yang.As human beings, we must keep the truth in our hearts, but we must also understand that life is like a yin and yang fish. Whether it is punishing evil or persuading good, we must use power to change, leaving a space for ourselves to turn around or even just save our lives. It's either black or white, and it's a fight with the truth.

Cai E, a famous general in modern times, was misunderstood by some revolutionary youths when he served in Guangxi. The youths organized strikes against Cai E one after another, but Cai E always sat firmly on the Diaoyutai.It was not until he went to Yunnan to take up his post that he invited several revolutionary youths to his home, showed them his heart, and said earnestly: "Students, why bother driving me away. I know you are a revolutionary party, and I am older than you. You are too young and have thorns all over your body. If you are not careful, you will be killed. I am here, and I can still perfunctory for you. I am gone, and you have to restrain yourself, so as not to show your edge too much. You know, to grow a tree, you must grow up Only then can you become useful talents, and you must not pull out the seedlings to grow them, I am speaking from experience!" Only then did the revolutionary youths suddenly realize.Later, Yuan Shikai went against the sky and forcibly proclaimed himself emperor. Before that, he deliberately transferred his confidant Cai E to Beiping. Appreciating flowers and eating wine in the immortals finally made Lao Yuan feel relieved, and Cai E was able to return to Yunnan to organize a discussion against Yuan and flaunt it in the annals of history.

There are many similar examples in history, but no matter how many examples are cited, it is to illustrate a truth: it is difficult to be a good person, especially a good person who can accomplish things is even more difficult. You must retreat when you should retreat and advance when you should. Enter when it is time, pretend when it is time to pretend, and wake up when it is time to wake up.The world needs martyrs who "remove Kunlun with liver and gallbladder", but it also needs wise defenders who "know the white, keep the black, and act the gray".

(End of this chapter)