From the text "Mencius - Li Lou Shang": "This is what is called nourishing the mouth and body", that is, providing food and drink to sustain life. Zuo Zongtang, an important minister in the late Qing Dynasty and a famous general of the Hunan Army, once said: "It is better to nourish the mouth and body than to nourish the mind. When dealing with people, we must pay attention to the fundamentals and get rid of the glitz.

This remark also appears in "People" In the TV series "The World", it comes from the mouth of Feng Huacheng, a Beijing poet who claims to be "noble and degenerate". His original words are "Serving your parents, taking care of food, clothing, housing and transportation, is to nourish your body; travel far and high, win achievements, let your parents take this as their Honor is to nourish the mind. "In fact, Feng Huacheng's explanation is just using hypocrisy to tear off a good fig leaf for his selfish and unfilial old man.

The meaning of nourishing the mouth, body and mind

The so-called nourishing the body means serving the parents and taking care of their food, clothing, housing and transportation, such as Zhou Bingkun, the elder brother of the Zhou family. The so-called nourishing the mind means traveling far away and achieving something, making the parents proud of it, such as the elder brother Zhou Bingyi and the elder sister Zhou Rong. Of course, perfect filial piety nourishes both the body and the mind, but in reality it is not easy to balance both. Most accomplished children leave their parents and only go home during the holidays.

Confucius said, “If your parents are here, you will have a good time if you don’t travel far away. "This is not against children chasing dreams and living in big cities, but I want to advise people: practice filial piety in time. As children, when parents are healthy, they can travel far away at the right time, but they must also remember to return to the place where life came from. Look at those weather-beaten hands, look at that frail and helpless back.