Break one's robe and meaning
"Cut off the robe and break the righteousness", also known as "Ning Guan cut off his seat", comes from the story of "Ning Guan cut off his seat" and is contained in "Shi Shuo Xin Yu De" written by Liu Yiqing in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Guan Ning, Huaxin Garden hoes vegetables. Seeing a piece of gold in the field, there was no difference between a hoe and a tile stone. China caught it and threw it away. I have also tasted the taste of reading at the same table. People passing by the entrance would rather read as before, and I am willing to waste my books. I'd rather find a seat alone and say, "I'm not my friend."
The story of cutting the robe and breaking the righteousness
During the Three Kingdoms period, Ning Guan, a well-read scholar of Wei State, and his good friends Hua Xin and Hua Xin Ning Guan were hoeing vegetables in the garden. There is a piece of gold buried by predecessors in the vegetable field, which was stirred by Guan Ning's hoe. Hua Xin and Guan Ning, who usually study to cultivate their morality, want to get rid of greed in human nature. So when Guan Ning saw gold at this time, he took it as a brick clod and threw it aside with a hoe. Hua Xin put the hoe behind him and saw it after a while. He knew that he shouldn't take it, but he decided to pick it up and look at it before throwing it away. This incident shows that Hua Xin's cultivation lags far behind Guan Ning's. A few days later, they were reading in the house, and there were dignitaries passing by in the street outside, riding gorgeous chariots and horses, beating gongs and drums, which was very lively. Ning Guan continued to read his book carefully as if he hadn't heard it. Hua Xin, however, could not sit still and ran to the door to watch, admiring the majesty of the powerful. After the horses and chariots passed by, Hua Xin returned home, but Ning Guan cut the mat where they were sitting together with a knife and said, "You don't deserve to be my friend anymore!" This story is also the prototype of later generations. It means that two close friends or brothers draw a line and stop seeing each other.
What does cutting the robe and breaking the righteousness tell us?
True friends should be based on the same ideological basis and goals, pursue together and make progress together. If there is no tacit understanding of the inner spirit, only superficial intimacy, such friends can't really communicate and understand, and they lose the meaning of being friends.