12 Mindfulness Lessons Listened to at Tsinghua University

Chapter 34 Wisdom and Idiot (1)
1. The beginning of literacy troubles in life

Intellectuals, with the freedom of conscience, see all kinds of social and political injustices, and can't help but want to "speak up" and "crow the rooster". This is the real root of "literacy troubles in life".Dongpo is a man of traditional knowledge who embodies "freedom". He has "a belly that is out of date", so "laughing and cursing are all articles." What's more, he was born in the Song Dynasty when "scholars take the world as their own responsibility". The era of dying with a cry and living without silence".If he is not flat, he will "sing" like an arrow on the string, and he will not take care of "trouble" if he invites it.

——Yu Yingshi (a famous contemporary historian, once delivered a speech at Tsinghua University)

Literacy in life begins with worry, and rough memorization of names can be stopped-this is a famous sentence by Su Dongpo, a great scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty. Why did he say that?In my humble opinion, there are probably the following reasons:

First of all, reading is a chore.The ancients said: It takes ten years to sit on the bench, and the article is empty without writing a sentence.Corresponding to this, there is another idiom called "study hard in the cold window".Think about it, the bench is cold, the windows are cold, no wonder it’s not bitter!It’s fine if it’s just a little bit of suffering. I’m afraid that some people will fall into economic crisis after halfway through their studies—they can’t study without paying tuition fees. How could he not be worried?

Although the learning conditions of the modern people are obviously better than those of the ancients, the studies of the modern people are more tiring than the ancients.Some families' parenting plans start from prenatal education.If we calculate according to some people's statement that "you don't count as a talent if you don't finish graduate school", a person needs to study for at least [-] years.On the other hand, modern people undoubtedly face greater competitive pressure than ancient people.Almost all Chinese parents will say to their children: You must study hard, otherwise you will not even be able to eat when you grow up!Often earnestly teach, how can children not have a sense of crisis?
But if a child is not able to read or read since he was a child, even if he is still unavoidable, he can at least avoid a series of worries caused by reading and literacy.For example, the crooked poem that people often say - there is a golden house in the book, and there is Yan Ruyu in the book.There are thousands of bells and millets in the book, and there are clusters of cars in the book—there are indeed the Golden House and Yan Ruyu in the book, but whether in the past or now, the Golden House and Yan Ruyu can only belong to a very small number of people, most people do not To be a nerd when tired is to collapse directly on the desk.As for a person who was illiterate since he was a child, he probably wouldn't think of a golden house or Yan Ruyu in his dreams.His knowledge determined that he could only think about thatched cottages and firewood girls.Don't think it's bad.Don't we always say that people should be simple?There is no essential difference between a farmer and his equally illiterate wife who grow old together, and a scholar who spends his life with his wife who can sing poetry and wine, and add fragrance to the red sleeves.

Secondly, many scholars tend to think that they have read some books, and they are self-admired, arrogant, arrogant, and talk nonsense.Disdain this one, disdain that one, and finally meet someone worthy of his "disdain", and often "literati look down on each other", envy and hate.The ancients said: Every time more dogs are slaughtered in righteousness, it is often a scholar who has a heartless heart!Modern people say: Intellectuals have no friends.Although they are somewhat biased, they are also true to a certain extent.

Although some scholars really have the capital worthy of self-admiration, and their various "disadvantages" identified by the world are even worthy of our learning, but ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, most of these people's life trajectories are not smooth.

Su Dongpo's own lessons are worth learning.At the beginning, Su Dongpo, who was officially a Hanlin scholar, was talented and eloquent, and he was highly regarded by Prime Minister Wang Anshi.Su Dongpo, however, relied on his cleverness and didn't know how to restrain himself. In the end, the misfortune came out of his mouth and he regretted his future.

Wang Anshi likes to do exegesis in his spare time, and he thinks he has a lot of experience.Once he explained that the word "朱" comes from bamboo and horse, because whipping a horse with bamboo will make a "duk-duk" sound, so the character "朱" is written as getting on the bamboo and getting off the horse.

One day, Su and Wang talked about Kaizi, and Wang Anshi said: "The word 'po' comes from the soil and the skin, so slope is the skin of the soil."

After hearing this, Su Dongpo laughed and said, "According to your old saying, the word 'slippery' is the bone of water." There was a lot of sarcasm in his tone.

Wang Anshi didn't pay much attention to it, and continued: "The word salamander comes from Yu Cong'er, and together it becomes fish roe. Four horses are four horses, and worms are silkworms. It is not unreasonable for the ancients to create characters."

Su Dongpo still smiled and said: "The word for dove is nine birds, do you always know the allusions?"

Wang Anshi believed it was true, so he asked Su Dongpo to explain.

Now Su Dongpo began to show off, and he said triumphantly: ""Mao Poetry" says: The dove is in the mulberry, and his son is seven. Aren't there nine mothers and fathers?" Hearing this, Wang Anshi hated his frivolity, The next day he was demoted to the governor of Huzhou.

Later, because of Su Dongpo's crazy character and extraordinary talent, he aroused the general jealousy of the ministers in the court. These people weaved a few short poems of Su Dongpo and forced him to create a "Wutai Poetry Case". If it weren't for Zhao Kuangyin's vow not to kill the ministers when he founded the country, and Wang Anshi saved him from it, Su Dongpo might have become an unjust dead ghost.

Even so, Su Dongpo did not restrain himself in the slightest.After Su Dongpo was released from prison, the first thing he did was to visit Wang Anshi.At that time, Wang Anshi was taking a lunch break, so he sat in the hall and waited, and found half of the poem "Ode to Chrysanthemum" just inscribed by Wang Anshi on the table: The west wind passed through the garden last night, blowing down yellow flowers and covering the ground with gold.Su Dongpo immediately shook his head, thinking that chrysanthemums are the most capable of fighting against Qiushuang, even if they die, they will not lose their petals. How can they say "blowing yellow flowers and covering the ground with gold? Isn't it a big mistake? Thinking of this, he ignored Wang Anshi's His predecessors and superiors followed up with two sentences: Autumn flowers do not fall like spring flowers, and said that he chanted carefully with the poet. Then he went back to the inn. As a result, Wang Anshi immediately found his continuation poem after waking up, and immediately dismissed him. Huangzhou served as the deputy envoy of the regiment training. Su Dongpo only said that Wang Anshi was jealous of himself and avenged his personal revenge. However, in the autumn after Huangzhou, he discovered that there was a kind of chrysanthemum in the local area that "blown yellow flowers and covered the ground with gold". Only then did he realize that he was really a Both thin and shallow.

When similar things were mentioned in the past, people always gave it a commendatory color, saying that it defended the truth, would rather die than surrender, stick to itself, and so on.Although it is said that the truth must be defended and responsibilities must be taken, but we must never be stubborn and make unnecessary sacrifices, otherwise, our book is really a waste of time.

2. Wisdom - Wisdom - Tao
We often say that we are "intellectuals", what is "intellectuals"?Is a highly educated person an intellectual?Behind every appellation, there is a kind of responsibility implied.

——Cai Lixu (Founder of "Haikou Xiaolian Chinese Studies Enlightenment Center", once delivered a speech at Tsinghua University)
Wisdom, wisdom, and Tao, put the three together, it is a topic of great depth and breadth.

First of all, smart, in simple terms, refers to high talent, strong memory and understanding, etc.Since it is a measure of talent, smartness is often used by people on children who have not had time to learn anything other than talent, such as "this kid is really smart", and there are indeed many people in history.For example, Wang Yuanze, the son of Wang Anshi mentioned earlier, when he was a child, someone gave Wang Anshi a deer and a deer. Since these two animals are difficult for ordinary people to distinguish, the gift giver took the opportunity to test whether Wang Yuanze was a deer or a deer. , Wang Yuanze rolled his eyes, and immediately replied: Next to the deer is a deer, and next to the deer is a deer!Everyone clapped their hands and applauded.

But this does not mean that Wang Yuanze really knows how to distinguish deer from deer.For ordinary people, this is nothing, and his intelligence is beyond doubt.But suppose Wang Yuanze is a zoologist?Such an answer will certainly not satisfy you.Suppose, when Wang Yuanze grows up, he accidentally offends the emperor Lao Tzu, and the emperor, on a whim, gives him the idea of ​​"distinguish life and death from roe deer", wouldn't Wang Yuanze be in danger?
This requires solid knowledge.Modern people often say: Knowledge determines destiny.This is true.But not all intellectuals can change their destiny, and some people are even worse than illiterate.The reason for this is that they did not digest and sublimate knowledge and generate wisdom.But wisdom is a double-edged sword. If you use it well, you can improve your combat effectiveness, but if you use it poorly, you will destroy yourself.None of those corrupt officials has wisdom and it is impossible to sit in a high position. Those high-tech criminals are all wise, but wisdom eventually harmed them and everyone.So there is a premise here, that is, a person's wisdom must be in line with the Tao.For example, the "way of life" we often mention, if you often rely on your own wisdom to deceive others, over time, not only will the people around you hate you, despise you, and stay away from you, but the law will also rule you out. Cut you.

What is "Tao"?It is difficult to give a one-size-fits-all answer.Mr. Wang Meng directly said in "Lao Tzu's Eighteen Lectures": Because foreigners can't translate Dao, they just use its transliteration, just like Xiao Shenyang said that my Chinese name is "Xiao Shenyang", and my English name is "" little Shenyang".However, people also have a general understanding of Tao.To put it simply, Tao is a kind of great wisdom that is just right, and it is the highest state of our life.

Most of the successful people in Chinese history are people who have attained the Tao.For example, Shun among the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, in today's words, he was a poor child. Not only did he come from a poor family, his father was blind, and his mother passed away very early.If it is only dependent on the blind father, it will not reflect Shun's misfortune at all.Because later, Shun's father married a stepmother, and the stepmother gave birth to a boy named Xiang, who was Shun's half-brother.From then on, Shun lived in the family environment of "a stubborn father, an arrogant mother, and an arrogant younger brother" for a long time. The three not only treated Shun very harshly, but also repeatedly planned to kill Shun. Fortunately, Shun was smart and alert, and at the same time took some precautions. Work, every time can turn bad luck into good luck.But every time he escaped from birth, he never hated his parents. He was still as filial as before and treated his younger brother very kindly.Later, people recommended Shun to the old Chinese leader Yao, and his virtue and morality quickly won Yao's approval and became his successor.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius, who paid attention to the mean, used Shun as an example to teach his filial son Zeng Shen to practice filial piety properly.Once, when Zeng Shen was weeding in the melon field, he accidentally hoeed and broke a melon seedling.His father Zeng Dian (also a disciple of Confucius) was furious when he saw this, he picked up the hoe in his hand and hit Zeng Zi.After a while, Zeng Zi came to his senses. He stood up immediately and said to his father: "I did something wrong and made you angry. I will pay attention next time." Let Zeng Dian hear his singing, know that he is safe and sound, don't worry about him.

After the story spread, people all praised Zeng Zi as a dutiful son.But when Confucius heard about it, he told his disciples, "If Zeng Shen comes, don't let him into my house."

After thinking about it, Zeng Zi didn't know why he offended his teacher, so he asked his senior brother Zi Gong to apologize to Confucius.Confucius said to his students, "Have you ever heard that Gusou had a son named Shun, and Shun was very obedient to his father when he served his father? He always obeyed his advice. But when Gusou wanted to kill Shun, Shun refused to let him go." He succeeded. Gusou beat him with a small stick, but Shun endured it; if he hit him with a thick stick, Shun slipped away immediately, in order to escape his father's wrath. Zeng Shen stood there waiting for his father to beat him violently, what did he say? He refuses to leave, this is not filial piety at all. If he is killed, won’t this put his father in an unrighteous situation? Is there anything more unfilial than this?”

We have all heard the story of "Zengzi Killing a Pig" and cited it as a model of honesty and trustworthiness.But if you think about it carefully, who in real life would do what Zeng Zi did?At least Confucius would not.It is necessary to stick to integrity, but you can't be obsessed with one side in everything, otherwise you will do bad things with good intentions, and things will backfire.

The "bad things" done by Zeng Zi are far more than this one.Zeng Zi, like Shun, also lost his mother when he was young, and his father remarried.According to historical records, Zeng Zi's stepmother was not very kind to Zeng Zi, but Zeng Zi was so filial to her that he got up several times every night to help his stepmother tuck the quilt and help the pillow.Later, Zeng Zi's stepmother fell ill and needed or wanted to eat pears, but Zeng Zi's wife did not steam them due to negligence, so Zeng Zi divorced his wife in a rage.Confucius was dead at that time, if he did not die, it is estimated that we have to draw a clear line with him.

Mencius also had a similar experience, but Mencius had a good mother, who was not only biological, but also knew how to make a family.Once, Mencius's wife sat alone in the room with her legs stretched out, which was not in line with women's morals at the time, so Mencius went to see her mother: "This woman is not polite, please allow me to divorce her." Mother Meng said, "What is the reason?" Mencius said, "She sat with her legs stretched out." Mother Meng asked, "How do you know?" Mencius said, "I saw it with my own eyes." Mother Meng said, "This It's you who don't talk about etiquette, not your wife who doesn't talk about etiquette. Isn't it said in the "Book of Rites": When you are about to enter the door, you must first ask who is in the house; when you are about to enter the hall, you must first announce it loudly , let the people inside know; when you are about to enter the house, you must look down. The "Book of Rites" says this, so that people will not be unprepared and unprepared. Now you go to the place where your wife lives and rests. There is no sound in the house, and people don’t know, so you saw her sitting with her legs stretched out, you can’t blame her, but you!” Mencius was so sweaty that he didn’t dare to say anything about his divorce. up.

The above examples fully demonstrate that even the proud disciples and sub-sages of the saints are inevitably confused in life, and this kind of confusion is by no means the rare confusion that people admire.Therefore, we need to remind again: cleverness and wisdom are not enough, and the truth sometimes goes out of shape. When encountering things, try to stand on the height of the Tao, handle them appropriately, and never go to extremes.

3. It is rare to be confused, and the wisdom will hurt

Smart is sometimes praised, sometimes sarcasm; stupid is sometimes criticized, sometimes self-deprecating, and sometimes realm.

——Shaku Shichang (Professor of Tsinghua University)

In the 1920s, someone asked Mr. Chen Yinke, one of the four great philosophers of Tsinghua University: People call you Chen Yinke (què), but the pronunciation of "què" is not in the dictionary. Why didn't you correct it when people called you? "Chen Yinke smiled and asked back: "Is this necessary? "

In the 1990s, at dusk, two young men sat on the bus in Beijing and talked eloquently: "Did you know that Ma Ji had an accident and was arrested!" "No way, his cross talk was broadcast on TV yesterday! "You don't know, it was recorded earlier!" Coincidentally, Ma Ji was sitting behind the two young men at that time, and when he heard the rumor that someone had made himself, he shrank his head into his collar instead and remained silent. , Get off at the station.

If someone can't even pronounce your name correctly, is it necessary to correct it?If someone slanders your reputation, is it necessary to stand up and refute the rumors?Of course there is.That's why we can't become masters yet.

What Chen Yinke and Ma Ji did was in line with Zheng Banqiao's famous saying - it's rare to be confused.This is a kind of self-restraint, a state, or a kind of great wisdom.Some things must be taken care of, and some things must be "lazy to care about", so that you can be at ease, and you can spend your energy and time where they should be used.

Confucius said: "When the water is clear, there will be no fish, and when people are under investigation, there will be no friends." No matter who it is, it is undoubtedly a kind of sadness if it is reduced to the point where it has no friends.So in life, we should cultivate a pair of insightful eyes, but more often than not, we have to learn to turn a blind eye and close one eye, which is rarely confused.

Time is like running water, and the boy’s head turns gray in a blink of an eye. Being serious about everything is not only too tiring, but also overdraws my life. Therefore, as a human being, we must learn to unload the helplessness in life, cut off those over-developed nerves that should not be developed, and put Put aside those unnecessary right and wrong, and the unhappiness in life will naturally disappear.Otherwise, sharp eyes will not only be of no benefit to your life and career, but will cause many unnecessary troubles.

The French have a proverb: "If ignorance is bliss, then stupidity is wisdom!" The "stupid" here is actually what we often say "rarely confused".It may seem stupid, but in fact it is a kind of transcendence, a kind of wisdom, a kind of maturity after going through vicissitudes, and it is also a wise way to protect oneself that everyone should know.

Dale Carnegie once told two short stories in the book:

On one occasion, Dai asked an interior designer to install several sets of curtains for his new house.When the curtains were installed and the workers handed Dale the bill, he was taken aback—the cost was way higher than he had planned.

A few days later, a friend went to visit Dale and asked him the price when he saw that he had changed the new curtains. After Dale finished speaking, he was also taken aback, and shouted: "What? He is too much! Dale, you have been cheated by him Already!"

"Have I been scammed? Yes, I have suffered a bit. But who wants to hear people say that their judgment is questionable? As a mortal, I immediately defended myself: 'There is always a good thing. The price, you see clearly, this is the most high-end material!'" Dale justified himself in his heart.

A few days later, another friend came to see Dale. When he saw those curtains, he kept praising them and said that if he could afford them, he would also like to have such curtains in his home.This time, Dale reacted differently, saying: 'To be honest, the price was too high for me to afford and I regret ordering these curtains. ' Having said that, Fadel was very proud at the time - for those expensive curtains and his frankness.

If Dell is a person of noble character, I believe no one will object.But he will still be annoyed or happy by a few comments from his friends, and the reaction when we encounter similar things will undoubtedly be more intense.Therefore, when getting along with people, it is best to turn a blind eye and close one eye, give each other some freedom, pretend not to see it, or don't know how to do it, or only look at the good side, and naturally avoid the corresponding troubles.

(End of this chapter)