Let's take a look at what I've brought since ancient times: ideas have emerged in troubled times and culture has emerged in prosperous times. What do you mean?
The world is in chaos, the imperial court is fatuous and the people are in dire straits. At this time, people are all in great pain, and the pain will lead to thinking about how to end the troubled times, and thoughts will be born.
For example, a hundred schools of thought contended in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty, metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in Tang and Song Dynasties, Neo-Confucianism and Philosophy in Song and Ming Dynasties, and Marxist philosophy born under the oppression of capitalists in modern Europe, etc. These are the ideological essence that people think about in order to set things right when they find social problems.
In the prosperous times, people live and work in peace and contentment, and there is nothing to worry about when they have enough to eat and drink. How can they have fun when they have plenty of time left?
It's time to start thinking about how to do poetry correctly, and do some art and culture such as painting, calligraphy, piano and pipa.
Therefore, we find that in fact, the prosperous decades to hundreds of years of each dynasty are the stages of concentrated outbreak of excellent culture.
For example, when we look at the Song Dynasty, many people think that the culture of the Song Dynasty is a period when our Chinese culture reached its peak.
Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, was a scholar, so the Song Dynasty, which was established after the Yellow Robe was added, was still full of literary spirit.
Although the Song Dynasty is recognized as the orthodoxy of historical continuity, in fact, we can find that the territory of the Song Dynasty is actually very small. In a real sense, the Song Dynasty is juxtaposed with Liao, Jin, Mongolia, Xixia and even Dali, and it cannot be said to be an absolute unity.
Moreover, DaSong is a civilian who leads troops and values literature over martial arts, so DaSong's army is surprisingly unable to fight.
Although the Song Dynasty was in an embarrassing situation where there were many powerful external enemies and its own force was general, the people of the Song Dynasty did live a stable and prosperous life for a long time.
why? Because although scholars can't fight, they know diplomacy and will sign contracts with other countries, and they have the feelings of seeking happiness for the people.
Therefore, throughout the history of the Song Dynasty, despite humiliation, various reparations for ceding land, some people even joked that the Song Dynasty was using the Marriage Law to engage in diplomacy.
But I have to say that the Song Dynasty * * * did win a stable and peaceful life for the people for many years in the unique way of literati.
Therefore, the stable life of the people, the collision of national cultures, and the strong literati feelings that Dasong originally had contributed to the brilliant cultural achievements of Dasong.
thoughts are born in troubled times, hidden in prosperous times, and culture is born in prosperous times and destroyed in troubled times.
Thought and culture are developing together in this general trend of the world.
Since ancient times, people have been longing for the prosperous culture, but in fact, the prosperous time behind the culture is the most important thing to pay attention to, because everything will turn out to be the opposite. If the prosperous time is too long, the world will be chaotic again.
when the world is in chaos, it is another round of ideological and cultural replacement.
although we look back from the perspective of contemporary society, the history of separation and integration is just a refreshment after dinner, but in fact, the wheel of history has never stopped, and contemporary us are still in it.
Therefore, we must pay attention to the experiences and lessons reflected by the repeated cycles in this history.
why is the world in chaos? It's because people are in chaos.
As the old saying goes, "If you work, you will think, and if you relax, you will be lewd." In short, the reason why people are in chaos is because they have been comfortable for too long.
This is the experience that our ancestors summed up with blood and tears for thousands of years. If we don't pay attention to it, the problem will be very serious.
Confucius, for example, summed up two situations that made him feel very helpless.
The first kind of Confucius said, "It's hard to eat all day long and have no intention." Simply put, eating and drinking every day is enough, that is, you don't use your brain and don't know how to think.
Confucius lamented that this kind of person was "difficult" and it was really difficult to teach.
If life is too comfortable, people will be lazy. Because there is no need to think, they will gradually lose their ability to think. When people stop thinking, society will have problems.
For example, after the prosperous period of Kanggan in the Qing Dynasty, the children of the Eight Banners were idle all day, eating, drinking and having fun, and the whole social atmosphere was bad. It is hopeless to persuade those "stubborn owners" in Beijing to study, so it is really very difficult to change this situation.
The same is true in modern society, such as the "successful learning" and "poisoned chicken soup" that many people are criticizing now.
all these theories sound very reasonable at first, but after a little thinking and deliberation, we will find that they are all word tricks that cover the whole picture and blind the eyes. The purpose is to consume public sentiment, and there is no academic value or ideological connotation at all.
But for a long time, they have been widely advocated and popularized by the public. Why?
Because many people are "careless".
If you have a problem with your mentality, instead of reading, thinking deeply and trying to change, you can comfort yourself by this "mind scratching", and the consequences are tantamount to quenching thirst by drinking poison.
or in recent years, there has been a contradiction between young men and women similar to "rural women's rights". In fact, a large part of the opposing concept of "women despise men and men despise women" is influenced by "poisoned chicken soup".
And once this concept spreads, it is really "difficult" to change it, as Confucius said.
Because ideas are deeply rooted in people's hearts, it is useless to rely on persuasion if people do not reflect deeply on themselves.
In the second case, Confucius concluded: "It is difficult to live in groups all day long, but it is not as good as words, and it is difficult to be kind and wise."
A group of people hang out all day, chatting is useless gossip, and they don't focus on university questions and great wisdom. They are all playing tricks. Once people get into this state, it is very difficult for them to change.
There is nothing wrong with gossiping for entertainment, but if people only talk about something without nutrition all day, gossiping about parents and celebrities, it can only show that the ideological connotation is missing.
this is called qiyu in Buddhism, which is to create a business.
Because there are too many boring words, in the eyes of others, you really become a worthless boring person.
When it comes to "being kind and small-minded", it is even more common in contemporary society. "Being kind and small-minded" means being clever and taking advantage of small things.
For example, in today's office politics, many people are not focused on their work at all, but are keen to play tricks, engage in small leagues, fan the wind, light a fire, spread gossip and engage in actions behind their backs.
after that, I still feel very smart, know the tactics and proud.
But in fact, these are all petty tricks. Thousands of years have passed in China, and all the big tactics have been played badly. These petty tricks are actually really childish, and everyone knows it.
Therefore, the older generation always said, it's only your character that is bad to take advantage of small things and suffer big losses, to be clever and to play around.
The real cleverness is to start with great wisdom, to practice, to improve one's self-cultivation, and to learn to do a good job of people first. You should know that Gui Guzi, the grandfather of Machiavellian, also thinks that the first-class friendship between people depends on morality.
That's why retired leaders, some of them just walk away from tea, while others are still highly respected.
Therefore, Confucius said that this situation is "difficult", because people are obsessed with their own ideas and it is really difficult to change.
Living in the contemporary era, our society is developing rapidly, and our living standards are constantly improving. If we work, we will think, while if we relax, we will have sex. Our ideas are changing imperceptibly, and our next generation has a different outlook on life.
For example, someone on the Internet used a joke to satirize the change of contemporary people's concept, saying, "Leaders will resign after 9' s criticism, leaders will resign after ' s disobedience, and leaders will resign after 1' s".
Although it's a joke, it's very true. It's not that young people's personality is bad, but that this change in ideas and thoughts brought about by social development is really amazing and unreasonable.
Therefore, we must take the ancestral teachings of our ancestors to heart, pay more attention to the changes in our mentality, and often ask ourselves, "Have you changed today compared with yesterday or last year?"
Because this change not only affects our personal development, history tells us that there will be no eternal peace in the world, and no one has ever escaped from the cycle of history. Each of us' thoughts are affecting the future of people, society and even the country and nation around us.
Therefore, in the rapidly developing contemporary society, we should be more responsible for ourselves, because to be responsible for ourselves is to be responsible for our home and the future of our motherland and nation.