"If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world." This comes from the "Exerting Heart Chapters and Sentences" (ninth) of "Mencius". The original sentence is "If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are rich, you can be good for the world." It means that when a person has no ambition, he should keep himself clean and take advantage of this opportunity to continuously improve his personal cultivation and moral character; when a person is capable, he should Carry forward the truth, goodness and beauty and provide help to more people.
If you uphold moral character and uphold justice, you will be able to be at ease. Therefore, do not give up justice when you are in poverty, and do not deviate from benevolence when you are prosperous. When you are poor, you do not give up justice, so you can maintain your integrity; when you are prosperous, you do not deviate from benevolence, so the people will not be disappointed. When you are successful, give kindness to the people; when you are unsuccessful, cultivate yourself and stand in the world. In a word: when you are poor, do your best; when you are prosperous, you must take care of the world and do good.
"Xiaoxiao", the pronunciation is overwhelming, and "the appearance is self-satisfied" ("Ancient Chinese Dictionary"). Describes inner satisfaction, joy, contentment, and leisurely contentment. The following text "get oneself" means to be satisfied with oneself.
"Poverty" means the end of the road, including the lack of material life, but mainly refers to the obstruction of ideal pursuit and career development, and the inability to move forward. On the contrary, it is smooth, smooth, accessible and expressive.
"Take care of yourself" means not to follow the crowd when you are poor, not to be decadent and sinking, to stick to your own beliefs and ideals mentally, and to adhere to your own principles and standards in behavior. In a word, be yourself in a bad environment and under adverse conditions.
To be alone, you cannot avoid "being careful about being alone". When you are alone, you need to be cautious and not indulge. Zeng Shen, a disciple of Confucius, said: "What the ten eyes look at and what the ten hands point to are so severe!" ("The Great Learning") Even if you are alone, you should feel as if everyone's eyes are staring at you and everyone's fingers are on you. Pointing at you means strictly supervising you.
To be alone does not mean to be isolated from the world. Confucius admired the character of the hermit, but did not agree with the hermit's practice - "Birds and beasts cannot flock together. Who can do so if I am not a disciple of this man?" ("The Analects of Confucius Wei Zi") People cannot flock together with birds and beasts. If I don’t belong to the same group as the rest of the world, who will I belong to? Mencius said, "If you don't have ambitions, cultivate yourself and see the world", which is completely consistent with Confucius.
"Being good to the world" means that on the premise of being good to yourself, you must also be good to the world. Gooding the world means making the world beautiful, and it can also mean making people in the world good. A closer look shows that there is a difference between the two, and being kind to oneself is the prerequisite. If you are not good to yourself, how can you do good to the world? However, there is no distinction between the two, but they are different stages of the same thing. It cannot be said that doing good to yourself is the first priority and doing good to the world is secondary. An individual is a member of society, and his value lies in doing his part to make society better.
For more than two thousand years, the vast majority of intellectuals in China have adopted "If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are rich, you can benefit the world." This is still the case today. (Bai Zichao)
"If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world." This sentence probably means: When a person fails to achieve his ambition, he should keep himself clean and focus on improving personal cultivation and moral character; When people achieve success, they should think about benefiting the people all over the world. This sentence has spurred and inspired many scholars for thousands of years. These ambitious, cultured, and ambitious scholars often regard this sentence as their motto in life. It should be said that this sentence has a very positive motivation and guidance for a person: it guides people not to give up on themselves when they are down in life, not to break the pot, but to work hard to improve their own cultivation and moral character; at the same time, it also warns people When people are happy in life, they should not be selfish and only care about themselves, but should help more ordinary people.
Extreme manifestations after failure in pursuing "fame" and "profit": depravity and indulgence. This kind of failure is wrong.
Although everyone hopes that they can successfully realize their life ideals and goals, in fact, it is inevitable to encounter setbacks and failures in life, some of which may be minor failures and setbacks, and some may It is a fatal failure or setback. After encountering failure or setbacks, some people become depraved, indulgent, give up on themselves, think that life has failed, their spiritual world has collapsed, and they no longer have the courage to maintain their previous positive progress and self-cultivation. , Strict requirements on moral character. If a person becomes like this once he encounters failure and setbacks, it is very likely that he will continue to degenerate, indulge, and sink, and will never see a turning point in his life.
Extreme manifestations of pursuing "fame" and "profit" successfully: indulgence and selfishness. This behavior is also wrong. People cannot float.
Some people work hard and after hard work, they just seize the opportunity and successfully realize their life ideals and goals. At this time, wherever they go, there are flowers, applause and smiling faces. and flattery, it is easy for a person to become levitated, and his inner selfish desires are extremely expanded. He slowly forgets his former good qualities and turns to pursue materialistic enjoyment, becoming more and more self-centered and self-righteous. , I can no longer listen to other people’s pertinent words. I think that after all the hard work I have put in before, I have finally succeeded. I have enough capital to satisfy my own selfish desires, and no one has the right to interfere. In fact, if a person becomes like this after becoming successful, generally speaking, he will gradually become alienated from his relatives, and the crisis will accumulate internally. When the accumulation reaches a certain level, the crisis will suddenly erupt, and he will suddenly fall into the abyss of eternal destruction. As the saying goes: "See him building a tall building, watching him entertain guests, and seeing his building collapse."
The practical significance of the sentence "If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world." The practical significance it brings to us is that we must clearly realize that everyone's life goal is why people live. My understanding is that life goals can be divided into four levels - the first level is to support yourself; the second level is to give your family a better life; the third level is to realize self-worth; and the fourth level is to contribute to society Make a contribution. No matter what level of life we ??are at, we must always insist on "taking care of ourselves", because as long as we always insist on cultivating our own cultivation and moral character, we will not lose ourselves whether we face failure or success. When we are lucky enough to enter the fourth level of our lives, we will naturally be able to achieve "what we achieve will benefit the world." From ancient times to the present, there are many examples of people who have achieved the goal of "being poor and benefiting themselves, and being successful and helping the world", such as Zhuge Liang and Fan Zhongyan in ancient times, Yuan Longping and Tu Youyou in modern times, etc. They can be regarded as models for the world. (Arbor Thirty)