In China’s cultural atmosphere that advocates authority, famous quotes play a very important role. Words spoken by many famous people are often regarded by the people as the only guidelines to guide their own outlook on life and world view. However, in these days, Among the famous sayings that have been passed down for thousands of years, some have been deliberately or ignorantly misinterpreted, deviating from the speaker's own intention and original intention. The following are some of the most widespread fallacies:
1. Repay evil with kindness.
Original sentence: "One might say: 'How about repaying evil with kindness?' The Master said: "How can we repay kindness with kindness? "Repay grievance with kindness, repay kindness with kindness"
——"The Analects of Confucius? Xianwen"
Repaying grievance with kindness is a sentence we often hear. People usually understand "complaining with virtue" "What does it mean? It means: If someone bullies you, you have to endure it. Even if your teeth are broken, you have to swallow it in your stomach. If someone bullies you, you should be nicer to them and use your love to influence them. , use your heart to move him.
But in fact, Confucius's sentence "complaining with virtue" is followed by another sentence. What is it? Confucius said: "Why complain with virtue?" Repay kindness? Repay vengeance with straightness and repay kindness with kindness! "The translation is: One of Confucius' disciples asked him: Master, if someone hits me, I won't hit him. Instead, I will be nice to him, shame him to death with my morality and education, and make him repent, okay? Confucius I just said, if you complain about virtue, then "How can you repay virtue?" "When others treat you with kindness, you need to repay others with kindness. But now that someone hits you, you should "just complain" and throw bricks at him!
Because Someone deliberately omitted a sentence, and the fierce old Master Kong was suddenly distorted into the gentle doormat image he is now.
2. The people can let it go, but they cannot let it go.
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Original sentence: “Confucius said: One thrives in poetry, establishes oneself in rituals, and succeeds in music. Confucius said: The people can follow it, but they cannot know it. "
——"The Analects of Confucius? Qin Bo"
"The people can make them follow it, but they cannot make it known." What does this sentence mean? It means that the state rules the people. Just instruct and drive them to do things, don't let them understand what they are doing. From now on, it is obvious that this is the trick that the ruling class has been playing for thousands of years - ordinary people, let them know that. What to do? It is better to be ignorant and just live a mediocre life according to our wishes. This admonition is not evil. It has been regarded as a treasure by China's rulers for thousands of years. But such a piece of stupid people. Is this really the original intention of Confucius, an educator dedicated to educating the people?
We know that articles in the Spring and Autumn Period did not have punctuation marks. You need to go through a process of "sentence breaking", that is, you add punctuation and pauses at appropriate places in the sentence according to the context, so that you can come up with a smooth and coherent sentence.
Insert here. In one sentence, why are Confucius's articles quoted so much by later generations? Firstly, this is of course due to Confucius's own fame, and secondly, because his quotations cover a very wide range, including almost all aspects of social life. Later, no matter who they are, no matter what their purpose is, they can quote relevant parts of Confucius' words out of context, and add their own personal interpretations and sentence fragments to prove their own views. For example, now. This sentence "the people can follow it, but not know it", from the previous article, our Mr. Kong has been discussing the education of poetry, etiquette and music, but why did it suddenly become an instruction to teach the emperor's power? ? It turns out that this is another intentional use of an inappropriate "sentence break" in the middle of the sentence to make this sentence ambiguous. We can easily come to this conclusion based on the context. The correct method of phrasing a sentence: "The Master said: Prosperity arises from poetry, establishes oneself from etiquette, and succeeds from music. If the people can do it, let them follow it; if it can't, let them know it. "The whole sentence of Confucius means that poetry, etiquette, and music are the basis for educating the people. They must be done well. If the people have mastered poetry, etiquette, and music, well, let them develop freely. If the people still can't play, , we must educate them and let them know and understand these things, and this is the original intention of the great educator Confucius who "teaches without distinction"
3. No poison, no husband
p>Original sentence: A man who is too petty is not a gentleman, and a man who is too generous is not a husband.
――Couple of Folk Proverbs
“A person who is small is not a gentleman, and a person who is not poisonous is not a husband.” This sentence is definitely one of the most outrageous among the many falsehoods in China, even among middle school students. , and you can easily see what’s wrong with it.
First of all, this non-toxic and non-husband attitude greatly deviates from the values ????advocated by the ancients we know. A real man naturally refers to those men who are open-minded and broad-minded. As for the prefixes of vicious, sinister, and backstabbing, why are they put in front of them to describe a real man?
It turns out that this proverb from the folk should have been "A small person is not a gentleman, and a large amount is not a husband." This is originally a very good sentence, and it makes full use of antithesis. It showed a masculine and powerful spirit, and the image of a man with a magnanimous mind appeared on the paper. It is a pity that this sentence, which was passed down from word to mouth among the working people, actually spread as far as possible.
This starts from the habits of ancient literati. In this couplet-style proverb, "Du" is a oblique character, which makes it awkward to read, so it is easy to pronounce it as a flat character." "Poison", those scholars who have high requirements for the beauty of music chanted it, and it became known as "No poison, no husband", so this sentence finally became a typical "Believe the words are not beautiful, and the beautiful words are not true" Example sentences.
4. Only women and villains are difficult to raise.
Original sentence: Only women and villains are difficult to raise. Those who are close will not have grandchildren, and those who are far away will be resentful.
——"The Analects of Confucius? Yang Huo"
First of all, based on Confucius's situation at that time, I raised a question: "Why did Confucius say at that time, 'Only women and villains are difficult to raise?' In this case? We know that Mr. Kong was deeply influenced by the "Book of Songs". He said: "Three hundred poems can be summed up in one sentence, thinking without evil." He thinks that the "Book of Songs" is a great book, and we Let’s take a look at this masterpiece that Confucius praised. A large part of it praises women’s liveliness, beauty, generosity and kindness, as well as the romantic love atmosphere of equal equality between men and women at that time. This is also true. In the Spring and Autumn Period, men and women were quite equal. , and Confucius himself repeatedly expressed his views on the equality of marriage and women by saying in the Book of Songs that "wives are harmonious, like drums and harps". Therefore, saying that Confucius discriminates against women is not only inconsistent with Confucius' thoughts. It is inconsistent with the general environment of civil society at that time, so this statement is really open to question.
So we have to look at what kind of environment Confucius was in. Who did he say, "Only women and villains are difficult to raise"? In "Historical Records: The Family of Confucius" it is mentioned that Confucius "lived in Wei for more than a month. Duke Ling and his wife were in the same carriage, and the eunuch Yongqu came out of the carriage. He asked Confucius to take the second carriage, and passed by in a showy manner. Confucius said: "I have never seen anyone who loves virtue as much as he loves sex." ’ So the ugly one went to defend him. "The translation is: Confucius was invited by the king of Wei and came to Wei. However, during this period, he found that he was only used to show off by Wei Linggong, and he was not really invited to educate the people of Wei. Especially, Duke Linggong of Wei's wife, in order to raise her own status, even showed off publicly. Confucius left Wei State in anger and lamented: "Only women and villains are difficult to raise!" If you are close, you will not appreciate it; if you are far, you will be resentful. "
After knowing these backgrounds and experiences, it is easy to understand what Confucius said. The people he scolded were the kind of "raised" women and villains. Women are okay, but think about who How can you raise a villain? Lord! Looking at Confucius's journey to defend the country, everything becomes clear. He was referring to a specific target, and this target was Duke Ling of Wei's wife Nanzi. "If you are close, you will not have grandchildren; if you are far, you will be resentful." How do you explain this sentence? It means that as a monarch, you have nothing to do with the women in the harem. If you get too close to your flatterers, they will get carried away, forget their identity, and start to use your power to do random things. If you distance yourself from them, they will complain again. In short, it will be very troublesome. It is understandable that Confucius said this when he was struggling with women in the court, and his worries were not unreasonable.
So who miscommunicated this sentence during the Western Han Dynasty? There is a "great Confucian" Dong Zhongshu, who strongly advocates that "the husband is the guide for the wife". This guy borrowed a sentence from Confucius and quoted it out of context, and put a thousand-year yoke on the heads of the vast number of Chinese women. He wrote in "Ji Yi". One book also proposed the "Three Cardinal Guidelines": "The righteousness of monarch, minister, father, son, husband and wife are all related to the principles of yin and yang.
The king is yang and the minister is yin; the father is yang and the son is yin; the husband is yang and the wife is yin. The three principles of the royal way can be sought from heaven. "These three cardinal principles and five constant principles gradually formed a set of principles for rulers to enslave the people, and "the husband is the wife's cardinal guide" has also become the theoretical basis for the unequal status of men and women in China for thousands of years.
5. My life also has a limit. , and knowledge has no limit.
Original sentence: My life has a limit, but knowledge has no limit. If I have a limit, I will die without a limit.
——"Zhuangzi? The Master of Health".
Let’s first take a look at “My life has a limit, but my knowledge has no limit.” Where do we see this sentence most? First, in libraries; second, in the back of classrooms in primary schools across the country. On the wall. According to people's current common understanding, this sentence is really a clear and clear aphorism for learning. It is more powerful than Confucius' "Learning and practicing, it is a joy". Throughout the ages, I don't know how many students Inspired by this sentence, Zhuangzi can cut through walls and steal light, listen to chickens dance, work hard, pursue progress, and read those books that will never be finished. Zhuangzi's spirit is really admired by future generations.
But the original sentence of Zhuangzi is actually this: "My life also has a limit, but my knowledge also has no limit. If I have a limit, I will follow the limitless, and I will die." "The translation is: My life is limited, but the knowledge I face is infinite. How is it possible for me to use my limited life to pursue knowledge that can never see the end? I will exhaust myself.
To put it more simply: learning is for application. No matter how great you are, how can you use all the knowledge in the world? Why do we spend all our lives studying? How can we have time to experience real life? Isn’t this just like people who eat to show off and dress to compare, completely putting the cart before the horse? Therefore, in his book "The Health Preserver", he warned future generations of nerds who have fallen into this vicious circle that studying blindly and blindly will not only be bad for your health but will also drag you down to death.
6. Helping each other
Original sentence: It is better to forget each other in the world
——"Zhuangzi? The Great Master"
The great thinker Zhuangzi also There is another famous saying that we are all familiar with: "Let each other help each other."
Speaking of this sentence, it actually has a lot of origins. The most frequently used word in martial arts movies is probably "jianghu", this "jianghu". Where did it come from? Many people think that it originally came from a sentence in Gu Long's novels, "People can't help themselves when they are in Jianghu". In fact, this is not the case. The earliest origin of the word "Jianghu" is in Zhuangzi's "mutually beneficial relationship". In the sentence "The Great Master", Zhuangzi tells us such a short story: "When the spring dries up, the fish and the fish are on the land. It is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes if they are wet and wet with foam." "It means: One day, the spring water dried up and two small fish were trapped in a small puddle. In order to survive, they blew bubbles from each other's mouths and used their own moisture to moisten each other's bodies. Support and rely on each other. But instead of supporting each other on the verge of death, it is better for everyone to find a waterway and happily return to the vast rivers and lakes, return to their respective worlds, forget each other, and be free. This is how "Jianghu" came about.
This sentence has supported many couples with different personalities but little emotional foundation until the end. What a good role model, but there was no such thing back then. I never thought about it, but since we need to support each other, why not just let go and let ourselves and each other go to find our own happiness and find our own world?
7: The world is unkind, Treat all things as straw dogs.
Original sentence: The world is unkind and treats all things as straw dogs. The saint is unkind and treats the people as straw dogs.
-"Tao Te Ching"
When it comes to this sentence, most angry young people will understand it as: the world is cruel and unkind, treating everything as lowly pigs and dogs, and those so-called saints who are above are no different, and still treat the common people as pigs and dogs !
But in fact, "Heaven and earth are unkind and treat all things as stupid dogs". The real meaning of this sentence is that heaven and earth are not emotional and treat all things equally, while saints are not emotional and treat the common people equally.
There is no oppression or discrimination in its original meaning. On the contrary, it speaks of a fair truth: all of us, all sentient beings, are equal in the eyes of heaven and earth. Thousands of years later, during the European Renaissance, humanist pioneers proposed the humanistic concept of equality for all beings, which was regarded as the beginning of the history of Western civilization after the Middle Ages. In fact, in China thousands of years ago, Lao Tzu had already put forward a similar point of view, even more radical: not only people are equal, but all things are equal.
Selected from "Chinese Studies Network"