Li Si’s life philosophy, whether he is honored or humiliated, cannot escape his philosophy of “taking the rat as a mirror”.

Back then, when Li Si was just serving Cai Xiaoli, he went to the toilet and saw a nest of rats. When the rat knew someone was coming, it was so frightened that it ran away with its head in its arms. When Li Si saw the toilet rat running away, he suddenly thought of the hamster he saw in the warehouse.

The rats in the warehouse are big and fat, and are not afraid or panicked when people come, but they are calm and collected. However, the rats in the toilet are small, thin and dirty, and they panic when people come.

Li Si, who saw all this in his mind, made a famous quote in the toilet that changed his destiny -

"The wise and unworthy people are like rats. "This is Li Si's "position theory".

A person's honor or disgrace does not depend on the size of your ability, but on what position you are in.

So, Li Si, who had "insighted into the true nature of the world", set out to find someone, a life mentor who could help him change his position. This man's name was Xun Kuang, also known as Qing, a pre-Qin Confucian. The last master of the school was respectfully called "Xunzi" at that time and in later generations.

It is said that Xunzi knew the "Emperor's Art", and this is what Li Si wanted to learn. A few years later, Li Si completed his studies and said goodbye to his mentor Xunzi. When leaving, Li Si stated his ambitions -

"There is no criticism greater than being humble, and there is nothing more tragic than poverty. Having been in a humble position for a long time, in a place of poverty, it is not the world but evil, self-reliance To do nothing is not the feeling of a scholar."

To sum it up, four words are enough - I want to be rich.

With the dream of wealth, Li Si went west. The west was the direction of Qin State. There, he met Qin King Ying Zheng and wrote the famous "Book of Remonstrance and Expulsion" to help Ying Zheng. The government swept across the land and swallowed up the eight wastelands. After Yingzheng unified the world, Li Si proposed that "the cars should be on the same track, the books should be on the same page, and the literature should be on the same line." At the same time, he firmly supported the "prefecture and county system", which ultimately enabled "Qin's politics and laws to be followed throughout the entire land of China for a hundred generations."

If Li Si had not understood the "position theory", I am afraid that he would not have had the desire to study. Throughout his life, he would have been nothing more than a small official in Cai, occasionally carrying his son, yellow dog, and going out. Go to Cai Dongmen and chase the cunning rabbit.

But it was the "position theory" that harmed Li Si. Li Si regarded himself as a mouse. His prosperity and wealth were all due to his position. Once he lost this position, everything would be lost. Vanished.

So when Qin Shihuang died, Zhao Gao and Hu Hai came to him and said that as long as he supported Hu Hai, he would protect his position as prime minister and the glory and wealth of the Li family could be preserved.

Li Si thought about it and realized that the political views of Prince Fusu and his had always been at odds with each other. If he succeeded to the throne, he might have changed from a hamster to a toilet rat. Li Si thought of his "position theory" and felt that although Hu Hai was incompetent, he could still do well as long as he was placed in the emperor's position and acted in accordance with the system.

So, Li Si agreed with Zhao Gao and Hu Hai.

Everyone knows the result after that. "The one who destroyed Qin was Hu Ye." Hu Hai was a fool. Hu Hai got rid of Qin's royal family, and he also killed Li Si.

If Li Si had not been confused at the critical moment and thought about the world instead of his own position, he might not have died so tragically.

Li Si’s life was based on “positional theory”, he was prosperous in “positional theory”, he failed in “positional theory”, and he died in “positional theory”.

Why should you, a good person, compare yourself to an incompetent mouse?