"If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world." It means that when a person fails to achieve his ambition, he must keep himself clean and focus on improving personal cultivation and moral character; when a person succeeds in his ambition, he must Thinking about carrying forward the good, it means punishing the evil and promoting the good.

"If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world." Mencius's words come from "Mencius" "Zhangju 1" (9), which shows a Confucian methodology for realizing self-worth, which is to first To realize personal survival and development, and then realize personal value to society.

It turns out that "if you are poor, you will be good for yourself; if you are rich, you will be good for the world." Later generations changed "Jianshan" to "Jianji" without losing the original meaning of Mencius. That is to say, when you don't have your ambitions, you should clean yourself up and cultivate your personal morality; when you have your ambitions, you should benefit the people of the world. Poverty often refers to being in adversity, being destitute, and having no aspirations in life. To be kind to one's body means to make one's body good, that is, to make oneself more noble in terms of moral cultivation. The so-called cultivation of one's moral character and nature is nothing more than that.

"If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world." As the embodiment of the "complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism" that is the essence of Chinese culture, he expressed the Confucian spirit of joining the world and the Taoist open-minded attitude.

Original text:

Mencius said to Goujian of the Song Dynasty: "Do you like to travel? I say to Ziyou: When people know it, they are also clamoring; when people don't know it, they are also clamoring."

p>

He said: "How can we be so noisy?"

He said: "If you respect virtue and righteousness, you can be noisy. If you are poor in your homeland, you will not lose your justice, and if you reach the goal, you will not deviate from the Tao. If you are poor, you will not lose it. Righteousness means that a person can achieve his goals (1); if he achieves his goal, he will not be disappointed. If he achieves his ambition, he will benefit the people. /p>

Original translation

Mencius said to Song Goujian: "Do you like to lobby the monarchs of various countries? I tell you the attitude of lobbying: you will be peaceful and content when others understand; you will be peaceful and content when others do not understand." ”

Song Goujian asked: “How can we be peaceful and contented?”

Mencius said: “If you respect morality and love benevolence and righteousness, you can be peaceful and contented.” Don't lose your benevolence and righteousness; don't deviate from morality when you are poor; don't lose your benevolence and righteousness when you are poor, so you are peaceful and contented; don't deviate from morality when you are prosperous, so the people are not disappointed. Ancient people gave kindness to the people when they had the opportunity; World. When you are poor, you are good for yourself. When you are prosperous, you are good for the world.

”