As a human being, you must have the heart of a benevolent person who loves others and the heart of a saint who is great and impartial. You must think more about the people of the world and study the basic philosophy of serving the people taught by the saints throughout your life. Only in this way can you Create a situation of eternal peace.
1. To establish a heart for heaven and earth: that is, to enable people to be born with the heart of a benevolent person who loves and helps others, and the heart of a saint who is broad-minded and righteous. In fact, the heart of compassion is the heart of being intolerant of others, which is Confucius's "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you, don't do to others", which is the starting point of benevolence.
This is what Mr. Ma Yifu summed up: "As a scholar, one should not seek benevolence by recognizing benevolence, liking benevolence and disliking benevolence. Being able to do this is to establish one's mind for heaven and earth.
2 . Establishing a destiny for the sake of the people: Directly derived from Mencius’ thought of “establishing a destiny”. It is said in “Mencius: Consuming one’s heart”: “Those who do their best know their nature. If you know its nature, you will know the heaven. Keep your heart and nourish your nature, so you serve heaven.
You will have a long life before you die, so you need to cultivate yourself in time for it, so you have to establish your destiny. "Through self-cultivation and teaching, if you can finally reach a state where no matter how long or short a person's life is, you can maintain your own physical integrity, then this individual life can be said to have settled down and settled down. p>
What Zhang Zai said about "establishing a destiny for the sake of the people" is actually to "establish a destiny" for "the people and our compatriots". The foundation of destiny lies in teaching, and "cultivating the Tao is called teaching".
3. To inherit the unique learning from the past saints: Therefore, those who "return to the saints" are the ancient Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius; those who are the "extreme learning" are the Taoism promoted by the ancient Confucianism and Mencius. For Confucianism, Confucius is certainly the most important. The masters of Lian, Luo, Guan, and Fujian in the Song Dynasty were the only ones who could truly carry forward the legacy of Confucius and Mencius.
4. To create peace for all generations: It expresses the eternal political ideal of the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty.
"To create peace for all generations" is to realize the cultural ideal described in Zhang Zai's "Xi Ming". Only by harmonious relations between the people and the common people can the confused and ignorant modern people return to the spiritual home of straightforwardness and honesty.
Extended information:
"For heaven and earth." Establish your mind, establish your destiny for the people, carry on your unique knowledge for the past saints, and create peace for all generations." The famous saying comes from "Four Sentences in Hengqu" written by Zhang Zai (1020-1077)
Zhang Zai (1020) - 1077), courtesy name Zihou, a native of Hengqu Town, Fengxiang County (now Meixian County, Shaanxi Province), a thinker, educator and one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty. No. 38 in the west veranda of Confucius Temple
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia_Zhang Zai (Founder of the Guanxue School in the Northern Song Dynasty)