Excerpt from the original:

Therefore, if a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools; Scholars must read their books first if they want to declare their meaning. Yi said: "A gentleman walks with many aspirations to cultivate his virtue." It is based on human learning, and there are also things that cure diseases.

Translation:

If a craftsman wants to do a good job, he must first make his tools excellent; If scholars want to carry forward benevolence, righteousness and morality, they must first go deep into the classics of sages. The Book of Changes says: "A gentleman should remember and understand the good words and deeds of his predecessors, so as to accumulate and cultivate his own virtues." So people need to learn, just as things need to be processed.

Extended data

There are ten volumes and thirty-six articles in On a Hermit, which are mostly political articles on the art of governing the country and reassuring the people, covering a wide range of fields such as philosophy, politics, economy, law, military affairs, education, history, ideology and culture, and providing valuable historical materials for future generations to understand and study the society of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

In the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, social contradictions were sharp and crises were everywhere. Wang Fu was worried, wrote books in seclusion and served as an official all his life. His civilian status and Geng Jie's ambition enabled him to look at the society more objectively and record it truthfully, and wrote On the Hidden Husband.

Wang Fu summed up the historical experience and lessons since the three generations, analyzed the social situation from many aspects and angles, made a wide and sharp criticism of the political society in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and listed the dark situation that the political, economic and social customs at that time were put the cart before the horse and were not worthy of the name. He thought these were "things that failed the world" and listed many historical lessons to warn the rulers at that time.

The root of social troubles comes from the obscurity of rulers, and the hope of managing troubled times is pinned on wise kings and sages. He hoped that a wise monarch could respect sages and be loyal to loyal subjects, and he believed that the world would be peaceful.

In view of the situation that "the rich benefit from their financial resources, while the expensive hinder their power" and the powerful and cronies create empty beauty for treachery, he clearly put forward the proposition that "a gentleman should not be rich, and a villain should not be poor", and asked the rulers that "a scholar must be determined to do it, and his name must be tested", and suggested that the rulers take practical measures such as examination of merits and clear elections to reform official management, which strongly reflected the strong demand of civilian landlords to participate in politics at that time.

The most prominent thing in his political essays is sympathy and attention to the people's thoughts, emphasizing that "the country is people-oriented and the value is foundation-oriented." This is the inheritance and development of pre-Qin people-oriented thought. In terms of economic policy, he demanded that the root cause should be emphasized, the development of agriculture and mulberry should be emphasized, and the people's resources should be cherished. He also talked about paying attention to the defense and construction in remote areas.

On the Hidden Husband is an important political paper in the history of China literature, with clear writing, concrete content, thorough reasoning and sharp criticism. Ci and Fu prevailed in the Han Dynasty, so The Theory of a Thousand Blessings showed a tendency of parallel prose in language, which reflected the tendency of parallel prose in political papers at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and gradually enlightened the gorgeous writing style prevailing in Jian 'an.

Baidu encyclopedia-the theory of latent husband