Be worried when the world is worried, and be happy when the world is happy." This is the famous saying of Fan Zhongyan, a famous prime minister in the Song Dynasty, and also the motto of countless intellectuals throughout the ages.
Fan Zhongyan was born in a very poor family. When he was young, he was very poor and lived a difficult life. He thought that if he could succeed in the future, he would help the poor. Later, when he became the prime minister, he used his salary to buy charity fields for the poor and landless people to cultivate. When he was young, Fan Zhongyan studied in a temple. Cook a pot of porridge (we now call it porridge) every day, divide the porridge into four sections, and eat one piece for each meal. Later, Fan Zhongyan became prosperous and became the prime minister. However, he still maintained the life of a poor scholar without much change.
Once he bought a house in Suzhou. A Feng Shui master praised the house for its excellent Feng Shui, and he thought that his descendants would be ministers. Since the feng shui of this house can make future generations noble, why not turn it into a school and let the children of the common people in Suzhou City enroll? In the future, everyone's children will be virtuous and noble, wouldn't it be more beneficial than having the children of one's own family become noble? The house was donated and turned into a school, fulfilling his old wish of benefiting all sentient beings when he was poor.
He had a lot of income, so he thought of helping many poor people with his income. According to the biography, I learned that he once supported more than 300 families with one person's income. You know that more than 300 people can only make ends meet and live a very poor life. If he lived a very wealthy life. How can we support more than 300 people? This is a great sage among us Chinese. Soon, Fan Zhongyan's four sons grew up. They were all talented and talented, and they were the great-grandsons of the Fan family. The nobility has been passed down for 800 years, and the descendants of the Fan family in Suzhou are still prosperous. Fan Zhongyan is kind-hearted and willing to sacrifice his own interests. His merits are immeasurable, and God has rewarded him. The fortune of Fan's descendants is dozens or even hundreds of times what Fan Zhongyan paid at that time.
This is because Fan Zhongyan has no self-interest and has sown unexpected seeds of kindness. It has continued to blossom and bear fruit for hundreds of years, unintentionally benefiting future generations, becoming a model of good deeds, and being respected and praised by the world. Cultivating virtues for hundreds of generations means that generations of descendants will protect it. Fan Zhongyan is the first example in China. It is Confucius, and the second one is Fan Zhongyan.
The reason why the Fan family has survived for eight hundred years is because of their accumulated virtues and their ability to share their blessings with others. It is a great blessing. Don't enjoy it all, but share it with others. The future blessings will be endless. Until the early years of the Republic of China, the descendants of the Fan family were able to maintain the family tradition, which was very good in Chinese history. There are not many people with great virtues like this.
Therefore, if people want to benefit their children and grandchildren, Fan Zhongyan's good deeds are worthy of imitation. From this we can know that the only way to do good is to eliminate evil and accumulate merit. The most important thing in life.