Chapter 14 Chapter 5 Some Lessons and Enlightenment

The external causes, internal causes and various situations of the success of young people in ancient China have been mentioned above, and many practical examples have been cited, from which we can get a lot of lessons and inspiration. Facts tell us that if a person wants to become a talent, he should mainly rely on his own efforts.There are many external factors that can promote the success of young people in ancient China, which shows that the road to success for young people in ancient China is very broad, but the road to success is not smooth sailing, and you may encounter various obstacles.In fact, there are only a small number of people who become talents at any time, and they can only account for a very small proportion of all young people. Why is this?The reason is that many people do not work hard enough, lack lofty ambitions, become complacent when they achieve a little, and finally fail to become talents.Some people lack the courage to fight against difficulties. They complain about others in the face of difficulties. They don’t know how to fight against the sky, the earth, and all kinds of natural and man-made difficulties to find a way out, so they can’t become talents.Some people are not diligent enough to study hard, and are only satisfied with a half-knowledge, which naturally makes it difficult to become a talent.Some people only have book knowledge and don't pay attention to practice. They just get some ready-made knowledge from books. They only repeat what the predecessors said and what the predecessors did. It is difficult to become a talent.Some people can live happily in a smooth environment, but once they are in adversity or encounter some resistance, they will only sigh, resent their own untimely birth, and be willing to be slaves of fate, so it is naturally difficult to become a talent.It is precisely because of this that there are not too many people who become talents.If young people living today want to make themselves successful, they must learn from the lessons of history, make up their minds from an early age, step up their efforts, and dare to fight against all difficulties and resistance, only then will there be hope.

Facts tell us that genius and success are not the same thing.Some people may have some unexpected geniuses when they were young, that is, they are uniquely blessed as mentioned above, but whether a genius can become a talent depends on the cultivation and education of his family, teachers and society, as well as his own efforts. When these external and internal factors work on him, the advantages of genius will soon disappear. When he grows up, he may become a mediocrity that is not as good as ordinary people.Wang Anshi, a political reformer in the Song Dynasty, once wrote a short article "Injury Zhongyong", which said that there was a child named Fang Zhongyong who was born in a peasant family in Jinxi.His family has been farming for generations, and there has never been a single scholar.When Zhongyong was five years old, one day, he suddenly clamored for stationery such as paper, ink, brush and inkstone.My father found it very strange, so he borrowed a set of stationery from a neighbor's house.Like a person who has read books, Zhongyong picked up a pen and dipped it in ink, and wrote four lines of poems, to the effect that a person should honor his parents, unite his clan, and put his own name on it.This is really an anecdote in the world, Zhongyong is actually a rare gifted child who can learn by himself without a teacher.As soon as the news spread, all the scholars from the whole town rushed to watch it, and everyone asked Zhongyong to compose a poem on the spot.As soon as Zhongyong got the title, he could write it with just a little thought, and the words and meanings were impressive.This shock shocked the entire county, people said that Zhongyong was really a great child prodigy, and a golden phoenix flew out of the Fang family's straw pile.Because everyone liked Zhong Yong, they also respected his father, and generously donated money to the father of the child prodigy, so that he could train and educate Zhong Yong well.But Zhongyong's father sees his eyes open to money, and he regards his son as a cornucopia of cash cows.He did not send Zhongyong to school to study, but like a monkey, he took Zhongyong to perform in various parts of the county every day, so as to beg for the crowd who came to watch.In this way, Zhongyong failed to receive a good education on the basis of his natural talent. He could only stay at the original level, repeating those poems that have been written ten times and hundreds of times and people are already tired of reading them.When he was twelve or thirteen years old, when people asked him to write poems again, he could only write two or three tenths of the poems he had written before.In this way, people lost interest in him, and no one came to watch it anymore.After another seven years, when Zhongyong was about 20 years old, he could not write a word, and became an ordinary farmer who could only cultivate the land with a hoe. The genius in Fang Zhongyong was like a flash in the pan, and finally disappeared quickly. .

In this story written by Wang Anshi, the characters have names and surnames, so it is probably not a fiction, but a fact.From this story, it can be seen that geniuses may not necessarily become talents.There are gifted children who are born with extraordinary intelligence, but in order for gifted children to grow into talents useful to society, they still have to rely on the training and education of their parents and teachers and their own efforts.Otherwise, like Fang Zhongyong's father, he only knew how to use his son's little cleverness to beg from others, but didn't know how to train and educate his son. Although he gained some immediate benefits, he eventually destroyed his son.The tragedy that a gifted child like Fang Zhongyong failed to become a talent may not be unique in the world, and there may be other similar tragedies.From this story, people get an important lesson and inspiration, that is, as parents of gifted children, they should not be complacent because their children are gifted, but should feel that their responsibilities are greater than other parents. If you don't take up this heavy responsibility, you may ruin your gifted children and be laughed at and reprimanded like Fang Zhongyong's father.As a gifted child himself, he should not be proud and complacent because he is smarter than others, relax in his studies, and not seek progress. Instead, he should make good use of his superior talents and forge ahead, so that he can truly become a useful person to the society, country and nation. talent.Otherwise, as the saying goes, "Cleverness is misunderstood by cleverness", a little bit of genius will become the shackles that imprison one's progress, and make oneself become another regrettable Fang Zhongyong.

People live in society. No matter what position a person is in society, he should think about his responsibilities to the society and how to make his own contribution to the society, country and nation.Those who give full play to their abilities, fulfill their responsibilities to society, and make contributions to society, the country, and the nation, and who have made great contributions and are inspiring to others, can be called talents.As for the many historical figures mentioned above who have grown up as young people, some people may say that those heroes who shed blood and sweat to defend the security of the nation are talents, scientists, thinkers, writers, and artists who have contributed to the cause of Chinese culture. They are talents, which is recognized by everyone, but emperors such as Han Zhaodi, Queen Mother Feng, Emperor Kangxi, etc., what they did was first and foremost to consolidate their dominance. Why are they also talents?The answer to this question is very simple, that is because they have also fulfilled their social responsibilities and made their own contributions to the society, country and nation.Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty inherited the achievements of his father Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, so that the Han Dynasty was not taken away by some conspirators, but continued to maintain the prosperity of the society.As an emperor, being able to do this while consolidating his own status means fulfilling his due responsibilities to society, and he is of course considered a talent.When the imperial power of the Northern Wei Dynasty was threatened, the government was corrupted, and production was shrinking, Empress Dowager Feng first eliminated the Yihun conspiracy that threatened the imperial power, and then carried out drastic political reforms, refreshed the government of officials, and developed production, making the Northern Wei Dynasty a stable and prosperous situation.As an empress dowager who is in charge of the court, she can create such a situation while consolidating the imperial power, which means she has fulfilled her responsibilities to the society. Of course, she is also a talent, and she is also a rare female talent.Emperor Kangxi pacified the chaotic situation in the early Qing Dynasty, got rid of Oboi, an ambitious man who threatened the imperial power, and removed one aspect of obstacles for the development of Qing Dynasty's political, economic and cultural development, and gradually created a prosperous Kangxi-Qian Dynasty.As an emperor, he was able to make such a contribution while consolidating the imperial power. Of course, he was also a remarkable talent.In short, everyone's social status is different, and the social responsibilities they should bear are also different. In ancient times, the social responsibility of an emperor was to make the country stable and prosperous.He cannot do this if his throne is not secure.His throne has been consolidated, and the policy he implemented is to make the country stable and prosperous. That is, he has fulfilled his social responsibility and made contributions to the society, country and nation. People have to recognize him as a great talent, not just because he is an emperor. And look at it differently, and set up another standard.Strictly speaking, there is no precedent in the world for the success of talents that only benefits individuals but is not beneficial to the society, the country, and the nation. Talents may bring fame and fortune to individuals, and more importantly, contribute to the society, the country, and the nation.

Facts tell us that a person's social status is not static. A person living in society may experience sweetness first and then bitterness, or bitterness first and then sweetness.The former situation is like a person born with a good environment. With the blessing of his parents or ancestors, he lived a rich life of eating meat and wearing silk. He opened his mouth for food and stretched out his hands for clothes. Knowing that a person should make contributions to the society, country and nation, he only knows that he can enjoy himself freely and let others serve him.But later the environment suddenly changed and his family fell apart, so he had to suffer.Even if you are an emperor, you may become a prisoner or a beheaded ghost if the times change.A person like this has no chance of becoming a talent, and one can imagine the final outcome. People will not sympathize with him, and no one wants to be like him, and of course they will not learn from him.The latter situation is like a person who was born in a difficult environment and lived in hunger and cold since childhood.Later, he rose up in the face of adversity, and through hard work, he became famous in one fell swoop, and finally the bitterness was sweet.People like this are of course worth learning from. There have been many such examples in the previous section "Standing Up to Victory in Adversity".However, if this kind of people develop further, there will be two different situations: one situation is that after they have tasted the sweetness, they recall the past hardships and feel that the world is difficult and it is not easy for them to make it through, so they are self-serving and thrifty. And continue to strictly demand yourself in all aspects of study and life.They are not dazzled by their own glory and wealth, but still think about how to make more contributions to the society, country and nation.Another situation is that they are satisfied with the status quo from now on, thinking that they have suffered a lot in the past, and now it is time to enjoy it.They began to live a life of extravagance and ostentation, they no longer sought to make progress in their studies, and felt that their knowledge was enough. As for making contributions to society, the country, and the nation, they had long since forgotten about it, let alone thinking about it. Actual action.People who continue to develop towards the former situation are rare. In the history of China, most of the young people who struggled to become talents in a difficult environment developed towards this situation. They are good examples worth learning.People who develop towards the latter situation are gradually out of touch with society. They have made some contributions to society in the process of becoming talents and the early stage of becoming talents, but they are extremely limited, and they will no longer make any contributions in the future. The little talent acquired by learning may gradually disappear into nothingness and become a mediocre person.Here we might as well take Jiang Yan, a poet of the Liang Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, as an example to illustrate that people in the latter situation do exist.

Jiang Yan was born in a poor family. He lost his father since he was a child, so he had to chop firewood and sell it for money.In order to change his situation, he studied hard, and he did have some talents, so he made rapid progress. He wrote "Farewell Fu", "Hate Fu" and other touching poems in his youth.His poems were appreciated by some dignitaries at that time, and he finally became an official.In the early days of his official career, he was an upright official, and he did not evade the powerful when he was impeached, and he was also highly praised by the people.Later, Jiang Yan's officials became bigger and bigger, he had a large area of ​​land, a generous salary, and lived a life of pampering.But from then on, Jiang Yan thought that he already had fame and fortune, so he was satisfied, and no longer studied hard like in the past, and he became more and more wise in officialdom, and no longer showed his sharpness.He stopped reading and writing poems and essays for a long time, and finally he could no longer write decent poems and essays. Just as others commented on him, he was "at the end of his talents" and could do nothing in the field of literature. A talent to be admired again.

Since ancient times, anyone who has the internal cause of determination to become a talent, and the promotion of external factors, will definitely be able to become a talent.However, after becoming a talent, one should not forget one's social responsibilities, one should continue to make new contributions to the society, the country and the nation, and one should not stop advancing after gaining fame and fortune.People who can closely link their success with their contributions to society, the country and the nation, and keep moving forward, are always respected.People who stop advancing after becoming talents will be ridiculed or even cast aside by society.