『Full text』

Shun was raised in the countryside, Fu Shuo was raised among the boards, Jiao Ge was raised among the fish and salt, Guan Yi was raised among the scholars, Sun Shuao was raised among the officials. Lift it in the sea, and lift it in the city for hundreds of miles. Therefore, when Heaven is about to entrust a person with a great responsibility, he must first strain his mind and will, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, deplete his body, and mess up his actions. Therefore, tempting his heart and forbearance will benefit him beyond his ability. (This person's first work: Si Ren)

People always make mistakes, and then they can change; they are trapped in the heart, weighed by worries, and then act; they are marked by color, expressed by sound, and then metaphor. If you enter, you will be unable to control the people at home, if you leave, you will be invincible to foreign patients, and the country will be permanently destroyed. Then I know that I was born in sorrow and died in happiness.

『Translation』

Shun was appointed from the fields, Fu Yue was appointed from the work of building walls, Jiao Ke was appointed from selling fish and salt, Guan was appointed from the work of selling fish and salt. Yiwu was released from the prison officials and appointed, Sun Shuao was appointed from his seclusion on the seaside, and Baili Xi was redeemed from the slave market and appointed.

So when God wants to place a heavy responsibility on someone, he must first cause pain to his heart, fatigue his muscles and bones, make him suffer from hunger, cause his skin to become thin, and make him live in poverty. Among them, it makes him do things poorly, shocks his soul through such means, toughens his temperament, and increases the abilities he does not possess.

People often make mistakes, and then they can correct them; they are worried and blocked in their hearts, and then they can rise up; they can be understood by people only if they are expressed on their faces and revealed in their speech. If a country does not have ministers who adhere to the law and wise men who can assist the king at home, and there are no neighboring countries to rival it or disasters from foreign countries, it will always be in danger of collapse.

In this way, we will know that being in constant sorrow and disaster can make people survive, and being in constant comfort and happiness can make people die.

『Notes』

Shun: Yao’s surname and Chonghua’s given name. During the reign of Emperor Yao of the Tang Dynasty, he farmed in Mount Li (southeast of Jinan, Shandong, or southeast of Yongji, present-day Shanxi). "The father was stubborn, the mother was loud, the younger brother was proud, and he was able to be harmonious and filial." Emperor Yao sent him to the mountains and rivers, and encountered a storm and thunderstorm. , Shun's behavior was not lost, so he passed on the throne of emperor. The name of the country is Yu, and the history is called Yu Shun. Deeds can be found in "Shangshu·Yao Dian" and "Historical Records·The Chronicles of the Five Emperors", etc.

Fa: rise, here refers to being appointed.

玎 (quǎn) mu: field mu, here means cultivated land. 玎, field canal.

Fu said (fù

yuè): During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, it was Xu Mi (a kind of prisoner) and was built in Fu Xian (also known as Fu Yan, in the east of Pinglu, Shanxi today). ). King Wu Ding of Shang Dynasty wanted to prosper the Yin Dynasty. He dreamed of a saint named Suo. Seeing Wu Ding, Wu Ding said: "That's right." He said to him that he was a saint, and he regarded him as a prime minister, and the Yin Kingdom was in great power. So he took Fu Xian as his surname and gave him the name Fu Shuo. Deeds can be found in "Historical Records·Yin Benji" and so on.

Ju: to be selected.

Plan construction: When building a wall, put soil between two plywood and pound the soil with a pestle to make it solid. A pestle used for building and pounding soil.

Jiao Ge (gé): A minister of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, he is also called a wise man together with Wei Zi, Ji Zi and Prince Bigan.

Fish salt: This means fishing and salting on the beach. "Historical Records" says that Yan is between Bojie, where there is plenty of fish and salt; it brings mountains and seas together, where there is plenty of fish and salt.

Guan Yiwu: Guan Zhong was from Yingshang (now Yingshang County, Anhui Province) and his family was poor. He assisted Prince Jiu of Qi State, but Prince Jiu failed to ascend the throne. Prince Xiaobai ascended the throne as Duke Huan of Qi. Duke Huan of Qi knew that he was a virtuous man, released him from prison, made him his prime minister, and respectfully called him Zhongfu. "Historical Records·Biography of Guan Yan": "Guan Zhong was appointed to govern Qi, and Duke Huan of Qi became the hegemon. The nine princes united to control the world, which was Guan Zhong's plan."

Shi: prison officer.

Sun Shuao (áo): The surname is Jiang, the first name is Ao, the courtesy name is Sun Shu, and the other is Ai Lie. In the Spring and Autumn Period, he was the Prime Minister of Chu State. Originally called "I am the humble one of Qi Si", Qi Si was in Gushi, Henan Province today, and the remote place was called Bi.

Sea: seaside.

『Creative Background』

This article is selected from "Mencius Gaozi Xia". During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were wars and disputes. If a country wanted to be invincible, it had to work hard and not be content with the status quo and not make progress. This article is written against this background.

"Appreciation of the whole poem"

"Born in sorrow, dying in peace" is selected from "Mencius Gaozi Xia". It is a reasoning prose with rigorous argumentation and eloquence.

The author first cites six examples of people who finally took on major responsibilities after being tempered by poverty and setbacks, proving that sorrow can inspire people to work hard and hardships can encourage people to achieve new achievements.

Then, the author further demonstrates from two different perspectives: a person's development and a country's rise and fall. Worry leads to survival, and happiness leads to death. In the end, things came to a conclusion, and he came to the conclusion that "I was born in sorrow and died in happiness." The full text adopts a writing method that combines listing of historical examples and reasoning, and infers layer by layer, making the article compact and well-argued. In addition, the article often uses parallel sentences and antithetical sentences. Even if the tone is inconsistent, it creates an unstoppable momentum and effectively enhances the power of the article. the persuasiveness of the argument.

『Comments by Famous Experts』

Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty's "Enemy Warning": If the enemy exists, disaster will be eliminated, but when the enemy is gone, he must be summoned.

Song Dynasty Ouyang Xiu's "Preface to the Biography of Lingguan in the History of the Five Dynasties": Worry and labor can rejuvenate a country, while leisure can destroy one's life.

Wu Kaisheng of the Qing Dynasty's "Reedition of Mencius' Grammar Reading": the whole body is circling, building up momentum for the last two sentences, and the composition is extremely strange, Jia Sheng's "Crossing the Qin Dynasty". From what comes out. Thousands of coils and hundreds of folds, thickly gathered into formations, folded purely with force, without any ripples or marks.