Chapter 148 Do not offside

Hong Yingming, a great philosopher in the Ming Dynasty, said: "It is not appropriate to behave in the same way as the common people, nor should it be different from the common people; to do things should not be annoying, nor should it be pleasing." In fact, what we are talking about is to do our job well on the premise of "not being different from the vulgar".Do your job well, you should.It's not your job. Even if you are eager to "help", you may be suspected of being offside. Confucius' disciple Zilu is a very forthright and upright person, and he is also Confucius' favorite disciple because he is innocent and straightforward. Although he often contradicts Confucius, he has always respected his teacher in his heart.

Zilu once served as the "zai" of Pu, that is, the chief executive.One summer, there was a lot of rain. Zilu was worried that the flood would not fall in time and cause flooding, so he led the local people to dredge the river and repair the ditches.He saw that the people had to do heavy physical labor in summer, and it was very hard, so he took out his salary and bought food and drink for everyone. Confucius heard about it, and hurriedly sent Zigong to stop him. Zilu was very angry, so he went to see Confucius angrily, and said, "Because of the heavy rain, I am afraid that there will be floods, so I started these water conservancy projects; I also saw that they were working very hard, and some were hungry, so I gave them some food." My porridge. If you asked Zigong to stop me, wouldn’t that stop me from doing benevolent things? You always teach us benevolence and benevolence, but now you don’t let me practice it. I won’t listen to you anymore!”

Confucius said: "If you really feel sorry for the people and are afraid that they will starve, why don't you tell the king to use the government's grain to help them? Now that you distribute your own grain to everyone, it does not mean telling everyone that the king is not good to the people. And you yourself are a very good person? If you stop quickly, there is still time, otherwise, you will definitely be punished by the king!" The value of the golden mean is to teach us not to forget the existence of the other end when we pay attention to one end of things.What should be said must be said, and said in place, express the meaning clearly, grasp the severity, and grasp the timing; what should be done, do it resolutely, and do it at home, and complete the work tasks without compromise , not only the result, but also the effect.What you shouldn't do, don't do it for a seemingly good original intention. You have to figure out whether it is "offside" or not, and then you can decide whether to do it, or do it in another way.

For example, Zilu can report the matter to the monarch as Confucius suggested, and the monarch will order to help the people.In doing so, he not only fulfilled his duties as a minister, but also did not arouse the dissatisfaction of the people with the monarch and discredit the monarch, thus avoiding the consequences of being punished by the monarch. The golden mean is a brilliant philosophy of life, but unfortunately, there are not many people who really master and practice the golden mean.Many tragedies that have happened in the world are related to the words and deeds of the parties who violated the doctrine of the golden mean.Why is this so?Why is there a good method but not accepted by others?In this regard, Confucius thinks this way: the reason why the golden mean cannot be carried out smoothly is because smart people often exceed the golden mean, but stupid people often fail to reach it; the reason why the golden mean cannot be known to the world is that It is because virtuous people often exceed the mean, while unworthy people can't reach it.

In fact, as long as you do things in line with your identity, responsibilities and roles, you will generally not be offside. Han Feizi was also very disgusted with the phenomenon of doing things that were not in line with his duties. He emphasized that those who violated officials and stepped over their posts to meddle in their own affairs should be severely punished.He told this story: Once Han Zhaohou was drunk and fell asleep on a few desks. The person who managed the hat for him was afraid that he would catch the cold, so he put a coat on him.When Han Zhaohou woke up, he was very happy to see that he had added clothes to his body. He asked the person next to him, "Who gave me the extra clothes?" punished together!

One of these two people did not do what he was supposed to do, while the other did what others should do, breaking the rules! Gifts are distributed during the holidays, A is in charge of purchasing, and A B is in charge of distributing.As a result, A Jia came back from shopping and felt that there was nothing to do, so she might as well do a favor for A B and do some distribution work.As a result, Jia distributed the gifts given to important customers to ordinary employees.Not to mention self-defeating, Ah Yi was criticized by the leader because he didn't do his job well.From then on, Ah Yi always wanted to dodge seeing A Jia.

It can be seen from this that it is very important to abide by one's own duty when walking in the workplace, communicating and dealing with affairs.