Lin Lei is nearly a hundred years old. In the spring, he still wears rough leather clothes and picks up the ears of grain left after harvesting in the fields, singing and walking forward. Confucius went to Weiguo and saw him in the fields. He turned around and said to his students: "That old man is a person worth talking to. Try asking him." Zigong asked to go. Walking towards him at the end of the field, he sighed, "Sir, have you ever regretted it? But you picked up the ears of grain singing and singing as you walked?" Lin Lei kept walking forward and kept singing. Zigong asked again and again, and then he raised his head and replied, "What do I regret?" Zigong said, "When you were young, you were lazy and didn't work hard. When you grew up, you didn't fight for time. When you got old, you didn't have a wife or children. Now you have When death is imminent, what kind of happiness is worth walking and singing while picking up corn?" Lin Lei said with a smile, "Everyone has the reason why I am happy, but they used it to worry me when I was young. He is lazy and does not work hard, and does not take time when he grows up, so he can live a long life. He has no wife and children when he is old, and now he is dying, so he can be so happy. "Zigong asked: "Longevity is what everyone hopes for. "Death is something that everyone hates. Why do you regard death as happiness?" Lin Lei said, "Death and birth are just one thing. So if you die here, how do you know you won't start again in another place?" What about birth? From this, how do I know that death is different from life? How do I know that working hard to survive is not stupid? At the same time, how do I know that my current death is not better than my past life?" Zi Gong listened. I didn't understand what he meant, so I came back and told Confucius. Confucius said: "I know he is worth talking to, and it is true; but his understanding of the principles of nature is not complete."
Zigong was a little tired of studying, and said to Confucius: "I hope I can rest for a while. "Confucius said: "There is no rest in life." Zigong asked, "So there is no time for me to rest?" Confucius replied: "Look at the empty wilderness. The place is like a tomb, like a mound, and like a rice pot with the bottom up, so it is time to rest." Zigong said: "How great is death! The gentleman rests at that time. He was buried at that time." Confucius said: "Given, you have understood now. People all know the joy of life, but they don't know the hardship of life; they all know the fatigue of old age, but they don't know the ease of old age. It is abominable, but does not know that death is rest. Yanzi said: "How good that death has existed since ancient times! The kind people rested at that time, and the unkind people were buried at that time." Death is what virtue requires. The ancients called the dead "returners". If the dead are "returners", then the living people are "walkers". Those who have been walking outside without knowing how to return home are those who have abandoned their families. When a person abandons his family, everyone in the world opposes him; everyone in the world abandons his family, but no one knows how to object. Some people leave their hometown, abandon their relatives, waste their family property, and wander around without knowing where to go home. What kind of person is he? People in the world will definitely say that he is a dissolute and crazy person. There are also people who are devoted to the rule of the prosperous age, think that they are smart and capable, so they gain fame and talk everywhere without knowing how to stop. What kind of person is this? What? People in the world will definitely think that he is a wise and strategic person. Both kinds of people are wrong, but people in the world praise one and oppose the other. Only the saints know what to praise and what to oppose.
”