Chapter 12 Section 5 Rise up to win in the face of adversity

A person cannot choose his origin. When he was born, he didn't know whether he came to a rich family or a poor family.But a person has the ability to determine his own course in life.If a person who grows up in a wealthy family does not make good use of the advantages of not worrying about food and clothing, studies diligently, and practices hard, that is, if he does not use his ability to take the road of becoming a talent, then he may waste his life in mediocrity. Nothing to contribute to the nation of society.On the contrary, if a person who grows up in a poor family is not intimidated by hardships, but dares to work hard in adversity, study hard, and practice hard, then he has exerted his ability, and he may stand out and go on the road to success. The road to becoming a talent is to become a person who has made great contributions to the society, country and nation.In ancient Chinese history, there were many people who grew up in wealthy families and were willing to work hard to become talents, but more people grew up in poor families, worked hard in adversity, and finally became talents.The former type of people is of course worthy of praise, and the latter type of people should be doubly praised. They represent the national character of the Chinese nation that is not afraid of hardships and dangers, and they are brave to fight. They are good examples for people to learn from.

In ancient China, there are many people who worked hard in the face of adversity and finally became talents. There are too many to list. Here I can only select some typical ones that have been praised by people all the time. During the Warring States period, Su Qin traveled all over the world in his youth, hoping to get a job, but because of his shallow knowledge, he couldn't convince the monarchs of the countries, so he couldn't achieve his goal, so he had to go home in despair.The family members saw him wearing shabby clothes, pulling straw sandals, and carrying a bedroll, coming home like a lost dog, knowing that he hadn't made a name for himself outside, so they ignored him.His wife shut the door of his room and wouldn't let him go in to sleep, his sister-in-law wouldn't cook for him, and his parents scolded him for being worthless.Su Qin was in this kind of adversity, and at first he just shed tears, but later realized that it was because his knowledge was too shallow, so it was difficult to succeed in lobbying.From then on, he worked hard and studied until late at night every day.I was really sleepy, so I came up with a way to hang my head on a beam and stab my buttocks. That is to hang a rope on the beam and put it loosely on my head. ; If you are not conscious and still feel drowsy, you can prick your thigh with an awl again. Once you feel pain and you are conscious, you can continue to study.Although his method of physically torturing himself is not clever, it is a stupid method, but for Su Qin it was a last resort in adversity, in order to motivate himself to study hard.He used this stupid method to force himself to read a lot of books, increasing his knowledge and ability.Later, he went out again to travel around the countries, and with his rich knowledge and eloquent tongue, he persuaded King Yan Zhao, helped Yan to unite with Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Qin and other countries, and defeated Qi with countermeasures. .Although Su Qin himself was caught by the state of Qi and died of a broken car, he worked hard in adversity and finally learned something. Educate children to study hard.

Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty was born in a family of historians.From the age of 10, he read Confucian classics and history books such as "Shangshu", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Guoyu" under the guidance of his father, and made up his mind to inherit his father's career.Since he was 20 years old, he has worked hard to carry out social practice, traveled all over the country, visited famous mountains and rivers, investigated the relics and anecdotes of major events in history, and prepared to inherit his father's career and write history books.But an unfortunate thing happened to Sima Qian suddenly. His good friend Li Ling was defeated and captured in the battle with the Huns and surrendered.He said a few words for Li Ling, which offended Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and was thrown into prison.In the second year, he was sentenced to corruption again, making him a physically incomplete person.Faced with such misfortune, another person may become depressed, lose confidence in progress, and give up all careers.But Sima Qian is not such a person. He decided to endure humiliation and survive tenaciously. He decided to write a book "When he wants to study heaven and man, understand the changes of the past and the present, and become a family." "Volume sixty-two "Sima Qian Biography") history books.His three sentences mean that he must write a history book that can reasonably explain the relationship between heaven and man and the evolution of ancient and modern history according to his own views.This is the noble cause he devoted himself to, and he will never give up until he reaches his goal, and he will never commit suicide.From then on, he worked day and night, revising the manuscript over and over again.After about 19 years of hard work, I finally wrote a "Historical Records" with more than 500,000 words.This book has created a style for ancient Chinese history books. It systematically narrates the history from the Yellow Emperor to the early Han Dynasty in several forms such as Benji, Family, Biographies, Tables, and Books, and faithfully reflects the historical political, Various situations of economy, culture, and ethnic relations have summed up the lessons of history.Sima Qian talked about many examples in history of people who worked hard in adversity and achieved success. He himself built up his confidence by taking these people as examples, so he was able to write books in spite of adversity, and finally achieved success.

Kuang Heng of the Han Dynasty was born in a poor peasant family, and his life was very difficult.At a young age, he went to work for others to earn some money to support his family, so he didn't even dare to think about going to school.But Kuang Heng is a child who likes to read very much. Whenever he has free time, he will go to a relative's house more than 10 miles away and ask them to teach him how to read and write.After years of running around, Kuang Heng finally learned a lot of characters and was able to read books and study by himself.So he borrowed books from his relatives to study by himself.He reads during the day when he is resting in the fields, but there is not enough time. He really wants to read more books in the evening, but his family cannot afford lamps and candles, so he cannot realize his wish.By chance, he found that the neighbor's house was brightly lit every night, lighting up the house as if it were daytime.So Kuang Heng cut a hole in the wall of his own house, and read books by the light of the neighbor's house that came through the hole.This is the story of the so-called "cutting the wall to steal the light".In this way, Kuang Heng worked hard in a difficult environment, used this method to finish reading Confucian classics, and became a very famous scholar in his youth.At that time, there was a popular proverb among the people: "Don't talk about it in front of Kuang Heng. Talking about Kuang Heng will make you smile." If Heng talks about it, he will be clear and clear, which will definitely make people happy.Later, Kuang Heng passed the examination and became an official. Scholars at the same time wrote to the emperor one after another, saying that Kuang Heng's knowledge is unparalleled in the world and should be reused.The emperor accepted everyone's opinions, promoted Kuang Heng step by step, and finally made him prime minister.Kuang Heng worked hard in a difficult environment and made important contributions to the political and cultural cause of the Han Dynasty.

Ge Hong in the Jin Dynasty was born in a family of declining nobles. By Ge Hong's father's generation, the family was already very poor.When Ge Hong was 13 years old, his father passed away, and the family became even more difficult. It was difficult to maintain three meals a day, let alone go to school.But young Ge Hong likes to study very much. He would rather go hungry, but he has to read books.He never borrowed money from others to buy rice and firewood, but he often borrowed books from others to read.Some books are catchy to read, so he recites them, and recites them whenever he has free time, so as to understand the meaning in them carefully.Some books are so ancient that they are hard to read and difficult to recite, so he copied them down and read them.Ge Hong didn't have money to buy paper and pens, so he used his free time to chop firewood and sell the money to buy paper and pens for copying books.He made a rule for himself that he had to finish copying a certain number of books before going to bed so that he could take them with him to read when he went out to work the next day.In this way, Ge Hong worked hard in adversity and read a lot of books.He especially liked alchemy and medicine. Based on his practical experience, he wrote books such as "Baopuzi" and "Elbow Reserve Emergency Prescription".Alchemy is to refine the elixir that can make people live forever. Of course, this is impossible, but alchemy needs to use the principle of chemical reactions of minerals, which is in line with scientific principles. Therefore, Ge Hong became a Chinese scholar. An early chemist in history.Ge Hong has made even greater contributions to medicine. He has studied the prevention and treatment of many acute infectious diseases, as well as the prevention and treatment of diseases such as surgery, pediatrics, and ophthalmology.He really deserves to be a good example of struggling to become a talent in the face of adversity.

Fan Zhen, an atheist between the Qi and Liang Dynasties during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, lost his father when he was young, and his family was very poor, but he was studious and tireless, and he was not discouraged at all in the poor environment. When he was more than 10 years old, he went to study under Liu Yu (Huan Huan) of Peiguo.Liu Yu was a well-known scholar at that time, and he had a large number of disciples, most of whom were children of wealthy families.They traveled back and forth in cars and sedan chairs. The clothes, shoes and hats they wore were all made of silk and satin, and they even painted their bodies with paint to show their nobility.Fan Zhen was wearing linen clothes and a pair of straw sandals, and walked back and forth every day.The classmates looked at him with contempt, saying that this poor boy really didn't deserve to sit in the same lecture hall with them.Facing such adversity, Fan Zhen remained calm and never lost heart.He believes that gorgeous clothes are only the appearance of beauty, not the real beauty of a person; only rich knowledge, rich heart, and beautiful soul can be regarded as the real beauty of a person, so he does not feel ashamed of his plain clothes at all, but still works hard Study hard and enrich yourself.His grades have always been much better than other students.After years of hard work, Fan Zhen finally achieved something in his studies and bid farewell to his teacher.At that time, Buddhism prevailed due to the advocacy of the rulers, and people were very superstitious about ghosts and gods, and believed in the theory of karma.Fan Zhen didn't believe in Buddhism, and expressed his atheism in "Shen Mie Lun", and held public debates with many Buddhist believers organized by Emperor Wu of Liang, refuting their accusations one by one.Fan Zhen is really worthy of being a great atheist who rose up in adversity and achieved success through hard work.

Fan Zhongyan in the Song Dynasty, his father died when he was a child, because the family was too poor, his mother had to take him to remarry.When Fan Zhongyan grew up a little, he said goodbye to his mother and went to other places to study.Because he has no source of income, he has to rely on his own efforts to earn a little money, or accept funding from relatives and friends.He knew that it was not easy for a poor kid like himself to study, so he worked hard day and night.The winter night was long, and when he was tired from reading, he would wash his face with cold water to refresh himself.He didn't have enough money to buy rice, so he couldn't eat dry rice for every meal, and he ate porridge for every meal.Every day he cooks a handful of rice into very thick porridge. When the porridge cools down and congeals into lumps, he makes a cross in the middle with chopsticks and divides the porridge into four pieces. In the morning, noon, evening and midnight, he eats one piece each to satisfy his hunger. .He couldn't afford vegetables, so he went to the field to pick some wild vegetables, salted them, cut them into several sections, and ate one section at a time.It is difficult for others to endure this kind of hard life, but Fan Zhongyan gritted his teeth and endured it.He read a passage in "Mencius": "Heaven will send a great mission to the people of Sri Lanka, and they must first suffer from their hearts and minds, exhaust their muscles and bones, starve their bodies and skins, empty their bodies, and chaotic their actions, so they are moved to endure. The meaning of this passage is: when God wants someone to take on great responsibilities, he will definitely let him go through a series of hardships first, and use all kinds of suffering to train him, so that he can go through Can stand the test and learn many skills that I didn't know before.Mencius regarded suffering as the will of heaven, which is of course incorrect.But Fan Zhongyan felt that the content of this passage could be used to motivate himself, so he copied it down as his motto, and prepared to do a good job in the future.Later, Fan Zhongyan won the Jinshi examination and became an official.He took his mother back to take care of him, and still maintained a hard and simple style. He only ate more than two bowls of meat dishes when entertaining guests, and his wife sewed all the clothes he wore.He saved the money to support poor kids like himself in his early days.Based on his own personal experience, Fan Zhongyan summed up two sentences: a scholar should "be concerned about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joys later."These two sentences have very profound educational significance. If you are not in adversity and become talented through hard work, you must not be able to say such words, and you must not realize that you should have such a high level of thought.People like Fan Zhongyan, who rose up in adversity and worked hard to become talents, will always be a good example for young people with aspirations to become talents.

Di Qing, a general of the Song Dynasty, was born in a farming family and learned martial arts since childhood.When he was 16 years old, he was sentenced to exile in order to replace his brother who had broken the law. His face was tattooed and he was sent to another country.Everyone can see the tattoo on the face, which is really a great shame, and you can't do a public job from then on.At that time, the frontier defense was tight and the army needed people, so Di Qing had no choice but to become a soldier in the army.In order to let his humiliated body have a bright future, he practiced martial arts hard in the army, striving to kill the enemy and make meritorious service one day.Later, he took the lead in each of the more than 20 battles he participated in, bravely killed the enemy, and made great contributions. He was appreciated by the court ministers Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi, who recommended him as a general.Although Di Qing has a bright future, he still never forgets that he was a criminal in the past, and he must make more and greater achievements in order to gain people's understanding and respect, so he practiced martial arts as usual, and he still took the lead in the event of war. Go charge.Once, Di Qing made another great contribution, and Song Renzong ordered him to be summoned.After the meeting, Song Renzong saw that Di Qing had tattoos on his face, and felt that it would hurt the dignity of the general, so he ordered the imperial pharmacy to send medicine that could remove the tattoo marks on his face, and rewarded Di Qing.But Di Qing declined Song Renzong's reward. He said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness. There are certain advantages to leaving the marks of criminals on the face of a minister. First, it can let people know that the court only looks at the actual performance of one person. Letting go of the past, a minister can still be a general despite being a criminal is an example; second, the words on his face make the minister always keep a sense of shame, knowing that he should redouble his efforts and not slacken in adversity, so the minister I would like to keep these words on my face, not only as a sign to motivate the soldiers, but also as a sign to encourage myself." Later, Di Qing has been in the high position of privy envoy, alongside the prime minister.

Hong Shi, who was a prime minister in the Southern Song Dynasty, was the eldest son of Hong Hao, a patriotic hero, writer and historian.When Hong Shi was 13 years old, Hong Hao was ordered to go to the Kingdom of Jin.Because he is a talented person capable of both literary and military affairs, he was favored by Jin Taizong Wanyan Sheng, who forcibly detained him in the Kingdom of Jin and refused to release him.After his father left, Hong Shi had his grandmother and mother to serve, and his two younger brothers to be raised and educated. The heavy burden fell on the shoulders of this 13-year-old boy.The strong Hong Shi didn't shed tears, and silently shouldered the burden of the family. On the one hand, he studied hard by himself, and on the other hand, he urged his two younger brothers to study hard with him.Whenever he had free time, he would pretend to be nonchalant and tell stories and jokes to his grandmother, mother and younger brother, so that they would temporarily forget the misfortune of his father being detained.The hard life has honed Hong Shi, a 13-year-old boy, to be as mature as an adult, and he has become a talent early.After 13 years of hard work, the 26-year-old him and his 24-year-old second brother Hong Zun finally both passed the examination of Boxuehong Ci and were granted Jinshi background. The 20-year-old third brother Hong Mai has also made great progress in learning.Song Gaozong was very happy to hear that Hong Shi was able to manage the family diligently and frugally during the 13 years when his father was detained by the state of Jin. In the distance, the son can stand on his own, this is the retribution of loyalty, and should be praised." He appointed Hong Shi and Hong Zun as decree officials, responsible for embellishing the text of the emperor's proclamation.Two years later, Hong Hao, who had been detained by Jin Guo for 15 years, was finally released and returned to China, and the whole family was reunited.Later, Hong Shi went to Shangshu Youpushe, Tongzhongshumen Xiaping Zhangshi and Privy Envoy, that is, prime minister, and did a lot of work for the political innovation of the Southern Song Dynasty.He also wrote many poems and essays in his spare time, so he can be called a writer.The reason why Hong Shi was able to achieve such a great achievement is inseparable from his hard work in the face of adversity when he was a boy.

Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, the predecessor of the Yuan Dynasty, named Temujin, was originally the son of Yesugei, the leader of the Borjijin clan of the Nilon tribe in Mongolia.When he was nine years old, Ye Su should be poisoned to death by his enemy Tata'er tribe. The whole clan was scattered, and all the cattle, sheep, llamas and horses were robbed.Temujin and his two younger brothers hid in a desolate place under the protection of their mother. They lived a very difficult life by picking wild fruits and hunting wild animals to satisfy their hunger.The mother taught her son not to be intimidated by the difficult environment, but to keep hatred in mind, exercise hard, learn martial arts well, and strive to revive the Borjijin clan of the Nilun tribe.Temujin kept his mother's teachings in mind, rose up in adversity, worked hard, and grew up day by day.The neighboring Techiwu tribe was afraid that Temujin would unite with the old tribe to fight against them when he grew up, so he gathered people to arrest Temujin.Temujin fled into the deep mountains and dense forests alone, and Taichi Wube surrounded the forest, and finally caught Temujin, put him in a wooden shackle, and imprisoned him.The vigilant and brave Temujin took the opportunity to escape. He broke the wooden shackles, fled back home, and moved his family to Buerhan Mountain (Kent Mountain in present-day Mongolia), where he escaped the persecution of the Techiwu tribe.From then on, Temujin practiced martial arts even more intensively.He also searched everywhere for the old tribe of his father Yesugai, united them around himself, and then went further to unite other tribes.Because of Temujin's high martial arts skills, bold personality, and fair handling of affairs, he was gradually supported by various tribes in Mongolia.For those tribes that did not obey him, he sent troops to conquer them.Finally, Temujin became Khan at the age of 33.Later, he further unified the various ministries of Mongolia, became the Great Khan of all Mongolia, established the Mongolian Empire, and was honored as Genghis Khan.He can be said to be one of the most remarkable heroes of Chinese ethnic minorities who have risen from adversity.

Song Lian in the Ming Dynasty loved reading since he was a child, but his family was poor, and he could only eat two meals a day, and he wore shabby clothes that had been mended again and again. How could he have the money to buy books for reading?So he had no choice but to borrow books from people with books.Borrowed books must be returned in time, and if you want to read them later, you must copy them down.In the coldest days, the water in the inkstone was frozen, and my fingers were frozen, so I didn’t dare to stop copying, so I had to use the heat from my mouth to melt the ice on the inkstone, warm my fingers, and hurry to copy. When finished, return the book to others on time.It is precisely because Song Lian is very trustworthy that people are willing to lend him books.With books, you will inevitably encounter difficult problems when you are reading. If you can't figure it out, you must find a teacher to ask for help.Song Lian's hometown is relatively remote, and it is really hard to find a teacher who is more knowledgeable than him, so he had to carry the bookcase on his back, traversing mountains and ridges, and rushed to a far away place to visit a famous teacher.He was exposed to the scorching sun in summer and the wind and snow in winter, and he ran around in order to understand the book, never daring to cry out.Some teachers are gentle and willing to answer Song Lian's questions patiently.Some teachers have a bad temper, and they get angry and reprimand people loudly at every turn.In such a situation, Song Lian had no choice but to stand aside, hold his breath and listen attentively. When the teacher's anger calmed down and his face reappeared, he seized the opportunity to ask for advice in order to fully understand the book he was reading.In this way, he insisted on studying diligently in a difficult environment for a long time, and Song Lian finally became a person with outstanding knowledge.During Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Song Lian helped him formulate various regulations and systems and became the most important minister at that time.Song Lian's deeds of struggling in adversity were not only regarded as a model by many scholars at the time, but also have educational significance in motivating young people today, and are worth learning. Tang Ruxun in the late Ming Dynasty was a self-taught blind poet in Chinese history.Before he was five years old, he was born with delicate features, and he learned to read and read with his elder brothers very early.When he was five years old, because of a serious illness, he lost both eyes and became blind.Encountering such a great misfortune, Tang Ruxun's heart was naturally very painful, but he was so strong by nature that he would never succumb to fate.Whenever his elder brothers were reading aloud, he would listen quietly, keeping every word in his heart.Sometimes, my elder brother couldn't memorize an article after reading it dozens of times, but Tang Ruxun, who was listening to it, could already memorize it.Tang Ruxun is particularly fond of poetry, because a poem has only a few dozen words, but the meaning contained is very profound, which can be described as concise and concise.The poems all rhyme in the same pattern, and the syllables are sonorous when read aloud, which is easy to remember.Therefore, Tang Ruxun often asked his elder brother to read to him the works of famous poets of the Tang Dynasty, and wrote down all the famous poems of Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and other poets.As the saying goes, if you are familiar with three hundred Tang poems, you will be able to recite them even if you don’t know how to compose them.After memorizing many poems, Tang Ruxun gradually learned the skills of rhyming words and how to express his innermost feelings with poetic language.So he began to compose poetry.Because his eyes are blind, he can't write by himself, so he recites with his mouth, and asks his brother to help him write on paper.The more he created, the more progress he made, and the poems he wrote shocked the people around him.People scrambled to copy and recite Tang Ruxun's poems. They all said that although he was blind in both eyes, his heart was very bright, and the poems he created could deeply touch the hearts of others.In this way, Tang Ruxun overcame the pain of blindness, studied diligently, worked hard to create, wrote more than a thousand poems, and became a famous blind poet.At the same time, Tang Ruxun also collaborated with others to annotate some relatively profound and difficult Tang poems, and wrote a book "An Explanation of Tang Poems".Some people say that poverty in life is easy to deal with, but physical disabilities are difficult to overcome, especially the eyes, which are essential organs for human beings to observe things, read and write, and it is very difficult for a blind person to achieve success.But Tang Ruxun was unwilling to become a useless person after losing his eyesight. With the help of his elder brother, he overcame many difficulties and finally became a famous blind poet by himself.Tang Ruxun's deeds are not only educational for the blind, but also educational for the sighted.This shows that as long as a person has the internal cause of self-improvement, no hardship or hardship can stop him from becoming a talent.