Source: Liang Qing Qichao's Speech at the Welcome Meeting of Shanxi Ticket Merchants: "However, I think that people are in the world, such as sailing against the current, if they don't advance, they will retreat." It's not bad that old things can be preserved. But I think living in the world is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat.
Example: even if there is still a little bit of sailing against the current, we still have to pull the fiber. (Lu Xun's essays on pavilions and foreign languages) Sailing against the current is often used with not advancing or retreating.
Extended data:
Words and allusions: The ancients said: Sail against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat. Why not advance or retreat? There is a premise in this, that is, "sailing against the current." Then along the direction of flowing water, can't you move forward easily? That was not the case. Because "downstream", along the direction of flowing water, you can only go down more and more, and it is impossible to climb the peak in the distance.
Example: In business, Fang Zhongyong was very talented, but because he didn't get the education he deserved, he became an ordinary person.
In addition, Luoyang Zhigui: Zuo Si, the author of Sandu Fu, was not smart when he was young. He studied calligraphy, music and the art of war. Nothing has been realized. Later, he made up his mind to study hard and write well, and spent decades writing Sandu Fu. Luoyang people rushed to buy paper for copying, which made the supply of paper in Beijing in short supply at that time, and was called "Luoyang paper is expensive".
Baidu encyclopedia-sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat.