Mencius Three Musics

Mencius' Three Joys

Mencius said in "Wan Zhang Shang": "A gentleman has three joys, but the king of the world does not have them." Parents are here, brothers have no reason, and they are happy. To look up to the sky and not to be ashamed of others is to be happy. Obtaining the world's talents and educating them are the three pleasures. A gentleman has three kinds of happiness, but the king of the world does not share them. ?

With all due respect, there are only a few people who have achieved these three pleasures in ancient and modern times. The second happiness is a matter of self-cultivation and can be achieved through subjective efforts. Sanle has its own efforts, and there is also the question of whether there is such an opportunity. To get the world's talents, you must first make yourself at least one of the world's talents. It is not easy to achieve this step. Even if it is done, it is God's will whether the world's talents can bow down under the coach. The most difficult thing to achieve is a happy life. This is not something you can have the final say or achieve with your own efforts. If parents are both present, brothers may not be together for a reason. On the contrary, if brothers are without a reason, parents may not be present. Life is unpredictable, there is nothing you can do! Su Dongpo had a deep understanding of the lost paradise of life. He once vividly compared it with the bright moon: "Humans have joys and sorrows, separation and reunion, and the moon has its dark eyes, waxing and waning. This is a difficult thing in ancient times." ?Even a historical literary giant like Su Dongpo, who is rare in a thousand years, can only enjoy two or three things. So, what about the sage Confucius? He also did not have this first happiness. He was still in his mother's womb, and his father had passed away. The Yasheng Mencius himself also lost his father when he was young, and Meng's mother raised him single-handedly. Therefore, fatherless love became the pain point of Mencius's life, and the joy of having his parents also became the unforgettable joy of Mencius's life. This gives us the biggest revelation in life: true happiness and happiness are not realized sometimes but after loss.

This raises a question for us, how to grasp happiness and joy? The reason is very simple and the least easy to do, that is, start from now.

Having both parents and brothers is undoubtedly the greatest joy and blessing in life. Chinese people have always regarded the loss of parents in youth, the loss of wife in middle age, and the loss of children in old age as the three major misfortunes in life. This is the most reasonable thing and supports the happiness of Mencius from the negative side. However, it is a common problem in life to be born in blessings and not know the blessings. Most people, especially today, don't care much about and fully enjoy this pleasure and happiness. They are indifferent or insensitive to their parents, and they are even more indifferent to their brothers. Once the mountains are high and the water is low, it will be too late to regret. What is even more sad is that social filial piety has been lost forever! Parental abuse has become commonplace. The world is declining, and the lonely old man cries on the road; the peace has gone, and the relatives look down on him in the busy city. Observing filial piety is the bottom line of being a human being. If you don't take the bottom line seriously, nothing will happen!

If you look at the world with a cold eye, how can you consider the happiness of this world? Money, power, sex!

Extended reading

Mencius’s three joys: the first is that parents are present and brothers have no reason to be together, which is the joy of family relations; the second is that one can look up to heaven and earth, which is the joy of being a human being; the third is that Recruiting the world's talented people and educating them is the joy of education. It is easy for a teacher to feel this way. This article was written by my father in the autumn of 2008. Now that I read it, I feel that his feelings for his hometown are brimming with the paper. There is also a stone inscription describing Mencius' article at the entrance of the No. 3 Middle School in my hometown. When I heard the Jishui River in the distance, I started to have no poetry. I only made beautiful scenery of the mountains and rivers. Thousands of years have passed by, but the river in my hometown is still quiet, quietly, it is there.

The Source of Three Joys (Prose)

Zhang Minsheng

If a person has been touched by a person or thing, that is a very happy thing thing. If the same person and the same thing moved you for twenty-two years, how would you feel? That is not a kind of happiness, but a kind of painful torture! This kind of torture makes you sometimes overly sad and overly sensitive, whether it's because of the situation or drinking to drown the sorrow, the sad thing is that you can't explain such feelings and sadness to anyone.

On the last noon of late autumn, I couldn’t fall asleep no matter what, and I felt restless after getting up. In the past, I could calm down and flip through a few pages of books in the office, but that day I felt extremely irritable. I thought I was sick, but my mind was still clear, and a voice kept ringing in my ears: "You should go there and see." ?

What is that place? I know.

Over the past twenty-two years, I sometimes suddenly think of the ancient houses, bluestone roads, and long slanted stone steps extending to the river. There are several village women washing vegetables and laundry beside the pier. The sunlight leaking from the ancient camphor treetops is dotted with flowers.

In the past 22 years of working in Leping, due to my occupation, I have been to almost every town and village in Leping. I don’t know when I developed this habit, maybe because I am not from Leping. Sometimes, I always like to ask questions about the origin and meaning of the village’s name, as well as local celebrities and famous products, etc. I want to know about it as soon as possible and become familiar with it. I'm afraid that something will happen in the future.

Now, if you search for a village randomly on the Internet, you may find a very strange phenomenon. Regardless of the size of the village, regardless of the region, there are always a few celebrities who make people feel proud, or make a certain area proud.

In Leping, such a place and such a village must be Mingkou Dai Village.

Twenty-two years ago, I was transferred from Jingdezhen to the Leping Daily as a junior reporter. One day in the autumn of 1988, a colleague working in Jingdezhen received a task to write an entry for Dai Liangmo for the "Chinese Great Scientists" dictionary. He entrusted me with this task.

I first learned about Dai Liangmo’s main resume from the "Leping County Chronicle". Out of curiosity, I thought I'd go to Daicun to have a look.

Sitting in a broken jeep, we bumped all the way to Mingkou Town***. The town *** enthusiastically sent a comrade to accompany me to Dai Village. The autumn sunshine is still very bright, the Le'an River is sparkling with gold, and boats are casting nets on the river to catch fish?

Along the bluestone road, walking through the crooked alleys, with ancient camphor trees leaning beside it Come out, the ancient houses are well-proportioned, simple and elegant. The villagers greeted the town cadres from time to time. When they heard that we were going to Dai Liangmo's house, they all enthusiastically gave us directions.

After many twists and turns, we finally arrived at Mr. Dai Liangmo’s home. This is a small one-bedroom, two-bedroom bungalow. In fact, this is the home of Mr. Dai's eldest son Dai Tiecheng. His former residence is elsewhere and has been sold to others to build a house.

In my memory, Dai Tiecheng was tall, enlightened, and talkative. Because he was the eldest son, Mr. Dai insisted that he return to his hometown, while the other siblings were in other places. He also said that after his father died, he insisted on being buried in his hometown, and the grave was on the hillside on the other side of the river.

He sent me a photo of his father, and together with a manuscript of Mr. Dai’s life, I sent it to my colleagues in Jingdezhen.

How many years later, every time I think about this, I always feel an indescribable feeling in my heart. But I can't always figure out what it feels like.

Dai Village should be a famous place. In 195 AD (the second year of Xingping), Leping County was established as Le'an County in Jiekou (Dai Village). In 621 AD (the fourth year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty), Leping County was resettled, and Jiekou (Dai Village) of Le'an Township was still governed. The establishment of a county government in Dai Village is a miracle. Previous dynasties have established their ancient capitals in the same place in Xi'an, Kaifeng, Nanjing and other places. It is probably unique in the country that a county seat has been established in a small mountain village near the river for 402 years.

At that time, Dai Village was the dock for ships and supplies from Le, De, and Wu counties. It had a Town God’s Temple, a Drum Tower Pavilion, and shops. I couldn’t predict what Dai Village was like at that time. Apart from its well-developed waterways, does this prosperous scene have any other advantages? Why in a very long history, Daicun can dominate and survive for hundreds of years?

I can’t understand the mystery!

In that glorious and proud era, every bluestone in Dai Village could tell a beautiful story, every shop would hear a different dialect, and every camphor tree would have a touching legend. . In the Qing Dynasty alone, there were four or five academies in the adjacent Mingkou Village. Before the Qing Dynasty or even earlier, how many "Jiao Guan", "San Guan", "Yixue" and "Academy" were there in Dai Village? It is unknown, but it should not be under Mingkou.

In addition to the businessmen and politicians from the north and south, the dialects and dialects of the east and west are integrated and exchanged here. It has naturally formed a cultural center among the political and transportation centers. Therefore, Daicun is the birthplace of our folk customs and civilized etiquette.

There is destined to be a celebrity here!

Dai Liangmo came into being.

I can’t study Dai Liangmo’s situation in detail. When he was a child, he walked through the bluestone lanes every day. Sometimes he was curious about the conversations of merchants and listened attentively, seeming to understand but not understanding. When I grew up, I would sometimes stand by the pier, looking at the dots of white sails, and thinking about it. How did he go down the Le'an River and along the Yangtze River to study in Nanjing? How did he travel to the East and fall in love with the former Qing Dynasty Jin Gege in Japan? . When I returned to China, how could I run for county magistrate and then resign? I took my children with me, moved to other places, and then followed the Le'an River, and finally decided to open a middle school in Leping Confucianism.

This year, he was 27 years old.

From then on, this person and this incident began to move me. For twenty-two years, it has been affecting me and tormenting me.

Dai Liangmo should be a very outstanding talent. After graduating from Southeast University, he studied in Japan and fell in love with a descendant of the royal family. After returning to China, he ran for office as county magistrate and became quite famous in politics. He gave up politics to teach and became a professor at Tsinghua University, Southwest Associated University and other universities.

Dai Liangmo was a very traditional intellectual. At that time, when the country was in crisis and the people were in dire straits, he chose to run a middle school in his hometown. This required a lot of courage and perseverance. Especially since he had seen the world and drank foreign ink, he resolutely sent his eldest son back to his hometown of Dai Village to settle down. He and his wife would also be buried on the bank of Jieshui River. The eldest son is like his father, and the eldest son is his incarnation. He asked his son to stay in Dai Village in his place and stay in his hometown. Resting beside the Jianshui River, he can hear the rushing water of his hometown every day and express his endless longing for his hometown and his eternal blessings!

It’s incredible that a person did something for his hometown in such a difficult era and did something that benefited future generations! Dai Liangmo founded "Leping County Middle School" in 1928. According to the "Leping County Chronicle": By 1956, except for Leping Middle School, there were no other middle schools in the county. In the autumn of 1954, the Shangrao Special Administrative Office designated Wuyuan, Dexing, Wannian, and Yujiang as the enrollment areas for Lezhong High School. Although things have changed, Leping Middle School was the highest institution of higher education in Leping and even the surrounding areas at that time. I think if we slightly magnify Dai Liangmo's contribution to education and enlightenment in Leping and surrounding areas, it should be comparable to Confucius in Qufu, Shandong. Because, our future generations of students in Northeastern Jiangxi, our teachers’ teachers’ teachers, should all be Mr. Dai’s disciples. We should call Dai Liangmo "Dai Zi".

After dinner, I was led by Zhan Yuanhua, the principal of Dai Village Primary School, to Dai Zi’s home. There are a few small lights in the small square, and two or three women twist their waists and dance to the accompaniment of dance music. The breath of modern civilization is spreading and permeating wherever there are people at an alarming speed. We used a lighter's small flashlight to find Dai Zi's home in a zigzag manner. I came to this home twenty-two years ago. Dai Zi's eldest son Dai Tiecheng has passed away many years ago, and his son Dai Changlin and his wife warmly received us. His little daughter is studying in the city. Looking around at the objects in the room, I feel sad. The descendant of a celebrity, life is so embarrassing and difficult!

We exited silently. Returned to Daicun Primary School and had a long talk with Zhan Yuanhua and others. Although Dai Tiecheng is illiterate, he has been the village mediation director for many years, and the villagers respect him very much. But when I learned that Zhan Yuanhua and Tan Shengping were both assigned as teachers here in 1991 and had never been transferred, and their lovers were both from Daicun, I was filled with infinite emotion!

Early the next morning, I accompanied Principal Zhan to the vegetable market to buy vegetables, because he was responsible for the food of five female teachers in the city. He said they might be transferred in the future. But it is not easy for a girl to work in this remote place for several years. Our place has become a post station, receiving many teachers and sending away many teachers. This is Mr. Dai's hometown, and I can only stay here.

While shopping for groceries, I ran into Mr. Dai, whom I had met a few years ago. I haven’t seen you for a few years, and I’m much older. He was tall and definitely a handsome guy when he was young.

He caught fish yesterday, and the five small carp and crucian carp in the big basket weighed less than half a catty in total. Mr. Dai is over seventy years old, has no children, and has made a living by fishing all year round. He has developed a lot of ailments. Each of his knuckles is swollen and thick. A few years ago, I visited his house, and he said at that time that there were almost no fish in the river, and when the water above came down, even the screws were dead!

The autumn morning is not very cold. He was wearing a thick cotton coat and thick cotton shoes. I asked him how he was doing. He said, OK! good! Sometimes you can catch a few fish in the pits dug for gold mining. Now we can't go fishing in other places. The boat is broken and the people are old, so it's hard to do it.

After breakfast, I asked Principal Zhan to take me to the other side of the river on his motorcycle. I wanted to go visit Jiedaizi’s grave. The flat land on both sides of the road was dry and cracked, weeds were everywhere, and reeds grew luxuriantly. I suddenly didn’t want to go. What could I say in front of Dai Zi? We diverted to Wuyiqiao Primary School. This primary school is built in a mountain nest. There are 52 students from seven or eight small villages, ranging from grades one to five. There are three duplex classes and three teachers. The children smiled so brightly when they saw me taking pictures of them!

When we returned, we were waiting for the ferry by the river. Principal Dai pointed to a nearby small river and said to me, that is Jiushui. The place where we stand is Jikou.

The river in autumn is glowing with golden light. Dai Village on the other side looks like a Chinese painting, and the scenery is beautiful. The sand-loading ship next to me was unloading sand, and the tall sand suction pipes rushed down. The water and sand were all flowing down, and the fine sand formed layers of beautiful patterns.

Hey! The intersection of Wu River and Ji River is right here, in Dai Village. Our ancestors gave the river below Ji River the most auspicious name in the world - Le'an River! From then on, our mother river, the Le'an River, flows westward, directly down to Po Lake, connects with the Yangtze River, and runs towards the sea.

As the water flows, people will grow old. We seem to have forgotten here. If we really forget Le'an River, Jikou, and Daizi, then who are we?

This is a holy land!

?

This is not only the source of Leping’s mother river (LeShui), but also the source of Leping’s civilization and etiquette (LeLi), and the source of Leping’s education (LeJiao)! Here is the "source of three joys" that we should all own together and should always be cherished, cherished, and proud of!