Nowadays, when young couples quarrel with their girlfriends, they always deliberately ridicule: it is really "only women are difficult to raise", and some couples will blurt out this sentence when their daughter-in-law is unreasonable. Then, in people's minds, the villain in this sentence is a derogatory term, and the whole sentence is not a good word. In fact, everyone has always misunderstood.
This sentence comes from The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo: Confucius said, "Only women are difficult to raise, and those who are near are not grandchildren, and those who are far away are resentful." What does this mean? Yu Dan, a former "master of Chinese studies", explained this sentence, saying that women and children are difficult to cultivate. Actually, I beg to differ. If the whole sentence is analyzed coherently, it must have profound meaning and be very classic. Now, let's analyze-
It's hard to raise a woman but a villain: in the first half of this sentence, "woman" refers to the first wife, "villain" refers to concubines, and "raising" refers to getting along. In ancient feudal society, a man with three wives and four concubines could have multiple wives, but many daughters-in-law were bound to fight each other for their own interests, and Confucius lived in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
There must be some differences between a large family and a small family, or between the first house and the second house, in the distribution of daily expenses and benefits. Then, over time, they all became daughters-in-law and gave birth to their husbands. Why do they prefer boys to girls, and the second daughter-in-law will be dissatisfied and full of anger? Then, sandwiched between many wives and concubines, you will naturally feel uncomfortable and will only sigh "difficult to raise."
Don't complain if you are near: this second sentence actually plays a connecting role. As a husband, when you face unequal concubines, you may be moved by sympathy. If you have something good, you should also give them a copy. But when they receive the gift, they will think that it must have been brought to her by them, because it is not what the headmaster wants. Otherwise, she will chatter.
In fact, the second half sentence is very interesting and classic, just like modern young people falling in love. You go to your girlfriend, you want to talk to her, but she has a princess temper for a while and makes you confused. If you keep your distance and don't call her for a few days, she will make irresponsible remarks and say that you don't love her and give her the cold shoulder. It can be said that you are close to quarreling, alienated and quarreled, which is really a headache.
As a generation of saints, Confucius' sentence "Only women are difficult to raise, being near is inferior, and being far away is resentful" is still very interesting. But people often say only the first half of the sentence, ignore the second half and misinterpret its meaning, which is somewhat regrettable. Confucius said this sentence, it should be exhausted by the jealousness between wives and concubines, before he sent out such feelings! I don't know what you think about this. Let's leave a message to discuss it. Thank you for watching!