Meaning: Studying and gaining fame was an excellent way out of life at that time. Only after gaining fame can you get wealth and beautiful women.
Source: "Li Xue Pian" by Zhao Heng, Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty.
Original text: A rich family does not need to buy fertile land, there are thousands of millet in the book. You don’t need to build a high-rise building to live peacefully. There is a golden house in the book. When marrying a wife, don’t hate an unscrupulous matchmaker. There is a beauty in the book. When you go out, don’t regret that there is no one to accompany you. There are so many carriages and horses in the book. The man wants to fulfill his life ambitions and reads the Five Classics diligently in front of the window.
Translation: If you want to make your family rich, you don’t need to buy good land for farming. You can naturally get a lot of corn through reading. If you want to live well, you don't need a high-rise building. You can naturally get a good house by studying.
Don’t resent not having any followers when you go out. You can get a lot of carriages and horses by reading. When marrying a wife, don't be resentful that you don't have a good matchmaker. You can naturally get a beautiful woman through reading. If a man wants to realize his lifelong ambition, he must study the Four Books and Five Classics diligently. Extended information
This poem is often used by people to encourage people to read, so much so that it is said that "there is no need to pay attention to the motivation for reading, as long as you love reading, it is better than not reading." Utilitarianism and reputation can be a great motivation for studying, but this motivation is like a "stimulant" and is beneficial to social development. Of course, reading does not exclude utilitarianism, but when the motivation is noble, utilitarianism is there, and you don't have to ask for the beauty in the golden house and you will get it naturally; when the motivation is evil, it is better not to study.
The purpose of a gentleman's study is to "rectify himself". No matter how capable he is, he can "rectify others". This is the meaning of "politics, rectification", which means "politics" in Chinese culture. If you can be "righteous" and "sincere", then your goal in life will not be to pursue the "golden house beauty". Because "cultivation" has been cultivated, then it can be achieved: if you get the beauty in the golden house, you will not be like Fan Jin, and if you lose the beauty in the golden house, you will not be like Xianglin's wife who lost her son.
Confucius said: "If you don't know destiny, you can't be a gentleman." Therefore, a gentleman must also "know destiny", that is to say, a gentleman can also know that pursuing what you want may not necessarily lead to it. As long as you feel that you want to If you do, can, and should do, then don’t worry about the past and the future. As long as we take every step correctly and happily, then our life will always be correct and happy. Even if we make a mistake for a moment, we will not regret it.
About the author: Zhao Heng, Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, was an outstanding politician in the Northern Song Dynasty. He imitated the ancient magical power of Fuji and made Deming Mingwu Dingzhang Shengyuanxiao Emperor (968-1022). Zhenzong was not Taizong's eldest son, and his mother was not a queen, so he was originally not qualified to inherit the throne.
When the eldest brother Zhao Yuanzuo went crazy and the second brother Zhao Yuanxi died suddenly, it was his turn to succeed. He succeeded to the throne in the same month and changed his reign name to "Xianping" the next year. At the beginning of Zhenzong's accession to the throne, he was diligent in political affairs and divided the country into 15 routes. Envoys from each route came to Beijing in turn to report on their duties and exempted the tax arrears from the Five Dynasties.
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