The motto of self-reliance

Self-improvement means giving full play to one's own initiative, working hard, and striving to become stronger. "The Book of Changes" starts from the standpoint of imitating nature and proposes that "heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman strives to constantly strive for self-improvement." "The Book of Songs" also says: "Ask for yourself and you will be blessed." Confucius admired the "resolute" character. He himself was a person who "worked hard and forgot to eat, and was happy to forget worries." Mencius emphasized from the opposite side: "Those who give up on themselves cannot do anything." Whether it is an individual or a country, only through self-reliance can we become self-reliant. Li Xian of the Tang Dynasty put it well in the poem "Send Away": "There are many difficult things in front of us. Since ancient times, men should strive for self-improvement." The spirit of self-improvement is deeply embedded in the vitality, creativity and cohesion of the Chinese nation, and has become the basis for the continuation of Chinese civilization. The spiritual power that lasts for thousands of years is also the high-spirited mental state that life should have.

Heaven moves in good health, and a gentleman strives to constantly strive for self-improvement.

Source: "Book of Changes·Qian·Xiang".

The celestial bodies are in constant motion, and talented and virtuous people should strive to improve themselves just as the celestial bodies are in motion.

It reminds the ancients that based on their observation of nature, they found that the movement of celestial bodies is very regular, going round and round, and never stops. Therefore, they use the way of heaven as an example to encourage people to constantly strive for self-improvement. This famous saying from "The Book of Changes" has inspired many people with lofty ideals in the Chinese nation to shed blood, sacrifice and struggle endlessly to resist foreign aggression and defend the homeland since ancient times. It is this sense of self-improvement that keeps the great Chinese nation alive and standing tall.

He who conquers others is powerful, and he who conquers himself is strong.

Sourced from Chapter 33 of "Laozi".

Being able to defeat others is a sign of strength, but being able to defeat yourself is considered strong.

Tips that there are many dialectics in Laozi’s thought. What is talked about here is an attitude towards life, emphasizing the importance of personal cultivation. When you encounter a strong opponent in a battle or competition, you should not be intimidated by the opponent's strong momentum first, but should enhance your confidence. Military strategist Sun Tzu's famous saying "A good victor is never defeated, a good loser is never destroyed", which emphasizes that we must first strengthen ourselves and fully study the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and ourselves. Only then can we mobilize all favorable factors, overcome our own weaknesses, carry forward our advantages, and win every battle.

Don’t blame God, don’t blame others.

Source: "The Analects·Xianwen".

Be careless and do not resent God or blame others.

Tips that some people encounter setbacks and often complain that they have been treated unfairly, or that others have not treated them well. In fact, you should first find your own reasons. If you don’t work hard subjectively and just make excuses objectively, you won’t be able to solve the problem. Solving problems ultimately depends on your own continuous efforts.

When heaven is about to assign a great responsibility to a person, he must first strain his mind, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, deplete his body, and mess up his actions.

Source: "Mencius Gaozi Xia".

Careless When God is about to entrust a person with a major mission, he will first suffer from mental suffering, physical fatigue, starvation, thin skin, and always do things unsatisfactory.

Tips that the so-called sky here actually refers to the era. These words emphasize that if a person wants to shoulder the great mission entrusted by the times, he often has to go through a series of hardships and setbacks in order to temper his will, grow his talents, and achieve great things. Sima Qian was castrated for defending Li Ling, which was considered a great shame and humiliation. He wanted to commit suicide several times, but in order to write "Historical Records", he endured the humiliation and worked hard to write, and finally completed this historical work.

Born in sorrow and died in happiness.

Source: "Mencius Gaozi Xia".

Carelessness can survive and develop in sorrow, but will perish in peace and happiness.

Tips that Mencius said before this sentence, "Heaven will give great responsibilities to people." This sentence is a concluding sentence, which further warns people: worries often make people work hard. Strong, full of vitality, and positive; while an overly peaceful environment, with no external dangers or internal worries, can easily make people settle for the status quo, and even lead to the destruction of the family and the country. The rapid demise of the Sui Dynasty and the decline of the Tang Dynasty were all related to the rulers' excessive pursuit of pleasure and loss of awareness of worries.

The road is so long that I will search for it up and down.

Source: Qu Yuan's "Li Sao".

Although the road is long and far away, I still want to go to heaven and earth to pursue the truth.

Tips that Qu Yuan was exiled twice because he advocated political reform and united Qi to resist Qin.

His long lyric poem "Li Sao" mainly expresses the sorrow, anger and sadness of leaving his country and his hometown. These two lines of poetry are famous lines in "Li Sao", which express Qu Yuan's spirit of diligent pursuit of truth. In the imaginary world, the poet travels around the universe on a dragon and phoenix chariot, expresses his love to the ancient emperor, asks questions to God, and pursues tirelessly. This spirit of "searching from above and below" has inspired future generations to pursue the truth, fear hardships and dangers, and have the courage to forge ahead for the cause of justice for thousands of years.

Those who strengthen themselves through self-cultivation will be worthy of Yao and Yu.

Source: "Xunzi·Cultivation of the Self".

If you achieve self-improvement through moral cultivation, your reputation will be as famous as the ancient sages Yao and Yu.

Tips: Self-cultivation is an important requirement of traditional Confucian ethics, which refers to self-improvement and strict requirements on oneself in accordance with social moral norms. Xunzi's requirements for self-cultivation are very high and specific, so that every word and deed, even clothing, food, residence, appearance, attitude, etc., must comply with moral principles. He believes that doing this is almost the same as Yao and Yu. In fact, he emphasizes that self-cultivation can be a way of self-improvement.

Those who can defeat powerful enemies must first conquer themselves.

Source: "Shang Jun Shu·Painting Strategy".

Those who can defeat powerful enemies should first be able to defeat themselves (weaknesses).

Tips: This sentence is about the strategic and tactical insights of the enemy, which is similar to Lao Tzu's thought of "the victor is strong". It is emphasized that those who fight against strong enemies must first defeat themselves, which means they must have full self-confidence. If you are discouraged when facing a strong enemy, you will definitely lose. This idea also applies to all aspects of people's lives, that is, when doing things, you should first establish firm confidence, strive to surpass yourself, and overcome your own shortcomings and deficiencies. Defeat yourself first, and then you can be invincible.

The old man is always ambitious, but the martyr is ambitious in his old age.

Source: Cao Cao's "The Turtle Sushou".

Although a thousand-mile horse is old and stays in the stable, it still wants to gallop a thousand miles; even if a person with lofty ambitions gets old, his ambition will not disappear.

It reminds us that the growth pattern of human physiological age cannot be changed, but mental age varies from person to person. Some people become demoralized when they reach old age, especially after retirement, and have nothing to do; some people when they reach old age are good at adapting to the environment, maintaining the same passion as young people, being proactive, finding a position that suits them, playing their role, and even creating new ones. career. It can be seen that as long as we continue to strive for self-improvement and understand ourselves correctly, the elderly can create greater glories.

Mo Dao Sangyu is late, and the sky is still filled with clouds.

Source: Liu Yuxi's "Instructions on Rewarding Lotte and Yong Lao Lao".

Be careless and don’t sigh. The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the mulberry and elm trees. It can still send out a red glow all over the sky.

Tips: Because the setting sun shines on the end of the mulberry elm tree, "mulberry elm" has become synonymous with sunset and old age in ancient times. These are two lines from Liu Yuxi's poem in reply to his friend Bai Juyi. They are both close in age and both were old when they wrote this poem. Liu Yuxi said that moving towards old age is a natural trend for people, but one should still maintain an enterprising spirit. This is what we often call the "sunset red" spirit.

There are many difficulties in front of us. Since ancient times, men should strive for self-improvement.

Source: Li Xianyong's "Giving People Away".

No matter how many unsatisfactory things happen in front of you, men must always be self-reliant.

Tips that parting is the tragedy of life, feeling sad and helpless. In a poem to say goodbye to a friend, there are naturally a lot of feelings that one wants to express. Mountains and rivers are far away, the world is rough, achievements are hard to achieve, and we don't get together much. How can all these things not make people feel sad and sigh! But these two poems put aside sadness and express heroic emotions. It inspires people: Facing difficulties in life, they cannot lose their will or lose their confidence. Even if there are many difficulties, we must face them bravely. Only by self-improvement and self-reliance can you improve your personality, maximize your potential and value, achieve great things, and create a wonderful life.

He is a hero in life and a hero in death.

Source: "Wujiang" by Li Qingzhao.

To be careless, you must be an outstanding person when you are alive, and you must be a hero among ghosts when you die.

Reminder During the Chu-Han War, Xiang Yu was besieged by Liu Bang's army in Gaixia. When Xiang Yu broke out of the siege and retreated to Wujiang River, someone prepared a ship to allow Xiang Yu to return to Jiangdong.

Xiang Yu refused. He said: "Back then, I led eight thousand brothers across the Yangtze River to march to the west. Now I am going back alone. Even if the elders in Jiangdong still support me, how can I have the face to meet them?" So Xiang Yu persisted in fighting until the end. At the last moment, he committed suicide. Li Qingzhao was a famous female poet in the Song Dynasty. She wrote the poem "Wujiang" to praise Xiang Yu, a failed hero, and to satirize the weak regime of the Southern Song Dynasty. Later, people often used these two lines of poetry to describe the heroic spirit of great ambition. The next two lines of the poem are "I still miss Xiang Yu and refuse to cross Jiangdong", which tells the above story.

The next step is to take a step further.

Source: Zhu Xi's "Reply to Gong Zhongzhi".

Even if you reach the top of a hundred-foot pole, you still have to keep working hard.

Tip "making great progress" is a metaphor for the achievements that have been made, and "going further" shows that people cannot be satisfied with the status quo and should strive for greater progress. No matter how successful a person is in his career, he should maintain a positive spirit and be able to not only surpass others, but also surpass himself. Ouyang Xiu, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, took his writing very seriously. Whenever he finished writing an article, he would post it on the wall and check it carefully until he felt it was impeccable before showing it to others. With this spirit of excellence and continuous pursuit of progress, a person will achieve greater achievements.

Answer: wyj_mysh - Scholar Level 2 5-25 18:28

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Born in Worry And die in peace.

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