The meaning of this sentence is that the wise follow the right path without seeking profit, and stick to the truth without rushing for success. However, it is ok to do things in a hurry, only to talk about the "right path" and not to seek benefits. It's easy to pay attention and get nothing. Isn't this a long time of starvation?
In fact, Zhu took this sentence as his motto for a reason. As a master of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, Zhu thought that "the theory of justice and benefit is the first meaning of Confucianism", that is, which is more important, ethics or material interests, is the most important issue for Confucianism. On this issue, the mainstream of Confucianism has always believed that the value of ethics is far higher than material interests and will not change with the development of the times.
Since Confucius, Confucianism did not like to talk about interests, but attached great importance to morality, so there was a saying that "giving up one's life for righteousness" and "giving up one's life for righteousness". Dong Zhongshu mentioned earlier was a great scholar in the Western Han Dynasty. He has a thorough understanding of the essence and significance of "profit". He saw that profit-seeking was human nature, and found that the desire induced by this nature would affect the implementation and practice of morality. Therefore, he advocates restraining the mentality of profit-seeking, at least let everyone take the public interest as the foundation and not talk about self-interest.
Zhu combined the thought of "preserving righteousness and destroying human desires" with Dong Zhongshu's thought, and thought that morality is justice, and interests and desires are selfishness and human desires. Therefore, Confucianism should put morality at the top of everything, and should not talk about utilitarianism.
At that time, although some scholars opposed Zhu's point of view and thought that they should stress utility and career, their thoughts were contrary to the traditional Confucian concept, and their academic achievements were indeed not as good as Zhu's, so Zhu's view of justice and benefit could never be overwhelmed.
Conclusion: Which is more important, righteousness or benefit, is not only a philosophical issue, but also of great practical significance. If we overemphasize morality, we will be kidnapped by morality, consciously or unconsciously avoid interests, and even prohibit others from talking about interests, which is obviously inappropriate.
However, if too much emphasis is placed on interests, it will lead to the lack of morality and the occurrence of unscrupulous things for interests. Zhu's view tends to emphasize morality and ignore the social value of interests, which naturally has its shortcomings, but it still has its positive significance in warning people who are "greedy"