The sound of wind and rain and the sound of reading can be heard, and I care about everything in the world, including family affairs and national affairs

====================== =====

Gu Xiancheng was born in Jingli, Wuxi (now Zhangjing, Wuxi County). The name is Shushi, and his name is Jingyang. He was honored as "Mr. Donglin" because he founded Donglin Academy. He was born on the seventh day of August in the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1550), and died on the twenty-third of May in the forty year of Wanli (1612). Gu Xiancheng's family was very poor when he was a child. His father Gu Xue opened a tofu workshop. However, due to the large family size, he often couldn't make ends meet and had to borrow money from others. The house where his family lived was very dilapidated and not protected from wind and rain. However, the difficult living environment inspired Gu Xianmian's determination to study hard and his ambition to make progress. He went to private school at the age of 6. He is smart, hard-working, and has great ambitions. He inscribed two sentences on the wall of the humble room where he lived: "It is happiness to read Confucius, and you will not be poor even if you live in Yanxiang." Yan Hui was a famous student of Confucius. His family was very poor, but he did not think it was bitter. He studied under Confucius, studied hard and took pleasure in learning. Gu Xiancheng used Yan Hui to describe himself, expressing his optimism and outlook on wealth and poverty, hoping to become a rich man with knowledge.

Knowledge is the ocean. Gu Xiancheng neither sticks to one family nor favors the past over the present. He has a broad vision and is well-read in hundreds of schools. He also read a large number of recent works by people from the Song Dynasty, such as Zhou Dunyi's "Tai Chi Book" and Cheng Hao's "Shiren". Chapters", Zhang Zai's "Xi Ming" and the works of Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan, Shao Yong and Wang Yangming. He was good at grasping the main idea of ??the book and did not indulge in exegesis, so he absorbed many useful ideas. When Gu Xiancheng was studying, he greatly admired the conduct of previous sages and sages, and wanted to imitate the thoughts and actions of those highly respected people. He wrote a couplet of his own: "The sound of wind and rain can be heard, and the sound of reading can be heard. I am concerned about family affairs, national affairs, and everything in the world." This expresses his concern for society during his studies. At that time, the social atmosphere was not correct, and some people had very bad moral character, had no sense of right and wrong, focused on self-interest, and acted according to the prevailing circumstances. Gu Xiancheng was indignant about this situation and always wanted to find ways to correct it, so as to combine book knowledge with social reality for research.

In the fourth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1576), 27-year-old Gu Xiancheng went to Yingtian (today's Nanjing, Jiangsu) to take the examination. In his examination article "Xi Shu Jing" he pointed out: The key to governing the world lies in the employment of people. appropriate. Only by selecting and appointing talented people and letting them perform their respective duties can the country be stable, the politics clear, and the people's sentiments stable. At the same time, Gu Xiancheng also emphasized that the court should be open to public opinion, accept advice with an open mind, govern the country by law, pay attention to summarizing the experiences and lessons of previous generations for reference, and run the country's affairs well. Because Gu Xiancheng's article had great intentions and thorough analysis, he was ranked first in the examination. People at that time named the first person in the examination as Jieyuan. Gu Xiancheng has become famous since then.

In the eighth year of Wanli Dynasty (1580), Gu Xiancheng went to Beijing to take part in the examination, and was admitted to the second place in the second class, and was awarded the status of Jinshi. At that time, those who won Jinshi could enter the officialdom. From then on, Gu Xiancheng began his official career and plunged into the social mainstream.