If you use it, you will act, and if you give it up, you will hide it. This is what the idiom calls "use the line and discard it, hide it" or "use the discarding line to hide it." It most concisely expresses the Confucian view of
If you use it, you will act; if you discard it, you will hide the political choices and life attitudes of becoming an official and retiring, joining the world and leaving the world, advancing and retreating.
What this contains is, on the one hand, the profound internal contradiction between advancement and retreat, and on the other hand, it also shows the Confucian ideological method and spiritual attitude of embracing power and adapting to change.
Confucius also said many times: "If there is a way in the world, you can see it; if there is no way, you can hide it." ("Tai Bo") "If the country has a way, you can be an official; if a country has no way, you can be in love. "("Wei Linggong") Mencius also said: "If you are poor, you will be good for yourself; if you are rich, you will be good for the world." ("Exerting Your Heart") All these sayings actually mean "use it and do it, and give it up and hide it".
The problem is that "people are in the world and cannot help themselves." Although you understand the principle of using the practice and abandoning the hiding, when you really face the reality and implement it to everyone, not only the use of the abandoning is not up to you, but also the walking and hiding. Often there is nothing you can do!
Living in the widest place in the world, establishing the right position in the world, and walking in the right way of the world; if you succeed, follow the people's will, and if you fail, live in the most spacious place in the world."
Live in the most spacious residence in the world Here, stand in the most upright position in the world and walk on the broadest road in the world. If you can realize your ambition, you will realize it with the people. He changed, and force could not make him surrender, so he became a man!
Mencius showed a strong spirit of self-respect and self-reliance and a certain degree of personality independence.
He pointed out that a gentleman cannot change his moral principles due to external circumstances.