The argument that the weather is not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as people.

Mencius said: "The weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as human harmony. The city of three miles, the country of seven miles, was invincible when attacked by the Lord of the Rings. If the husband attacks it, he will get the right time; However, if you don't win, it's better to be in the right place at the right time. The city is not too high, the pond is not too deep, the army is not very profitable, and there is not much rice, so it is not as good as people and peace. Therefore, the people in the territory do not take the government boundary, the country does not take the risk of mountains and rivers, and the world does not take advantage of war. Those who gain the Tao help more, and those who lose the Tao help less; When there is little help, relatives will be there; Help more, and the world will be at peace. Take advantage of the world and attack your relatives. A gentleman wins without fighting.

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Mencius said: "The weather and season conducive to combat are not as good as the geographical conditions conducive to combat, and the geographical conditions conducive to combat are not as good as the people's hearts and internal unity in combat. The inner city of Li San in Fiona Fang and the outer city of Qi Li in Fiona Fang were surrounded and attacked, but they could not win. To encircle and attack it, we must get a weather season that is conducive to combat, but we can't win because the weather and season that are conducive to combat are not as good as the geographical conditions that are conducive to combat. The city wall is not high, the moat is not deep, the weapons and equipment are not solid and sharp, and the food is not small. However, the reason why (the garrison) abandoned the city and fled was because the geographical situation favorable to the operation was not as good as the popular will and internal unity in the operation. Therefore, to make people live in peace, we can't rely on delineating border boundaries, consolidating national defense can't rely on mountains and rivers, and shocking the world can't rely on force. Monarchs who practice benevolent policies will get more help and support, while monarchs who do not practice benevolent policies will get less help and support. Helping others is extremely rare, and relatives inside and outside betray him. Helping others to the extreme, everyone in the world submits to him. On the condition that all the people in the world submit to him, attack those who are betrayed by their relatives at home and abroad, so a gentleman will defeat the enemy without fighting and win the battle.

A brief analysis of this paragraph

The central argument is the first two sentences of the article. Mencius put forward three concepts, namely, weather, geographical location, and human harmony, and compared these three concepts to promote them layer by layer. Emphasize the importance of "harmony between people" with two "not as good". The comparison between the three is essentially the comparison between the former and the latter, emphasizing that various objective and multifaceted factors are not as good as people's subjective conditions and the "harmony between people" in the war, and it is people rather than things that determine the outcome of the war. The comparative argument is extremely impressive. The sentence pattern is the same, the tone is very positive, no doubt. Two or three paragraphs focus on the central argument and further demonstrate it with two arguments. In the second paragraph, examples of attack and war are selected to illustrate that "the weather is not as good as the geographical position". A small town is surrounded on all sides and can't be broken. Even people with "good weather" can't win, which aims to show that "good location" is more important than good weather; In the third paragraph, examples of attack and war are selected to illustrate that even if the city is favorable-the water is not high, the soldiers are bloodless and the rice is not much, some people abandon the city and flee, because the favorable position is hard to compare with the harmony between people. These two examples are not actual examples of war, but general, that is, except for special circumstances. Therefore, the debate has universal significance and certain persuasiveness. The above syllogism proves the truth that "the weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as human harmony". The function of the fourth paragraph is to further elaborate on the basis of the previous syllogism and push the scope of argument from war to governing the country, thus fully embodying Mencius' political views and making the article more universal. Secondly, "winning the Tao" can actually be understood as "winning people's hearts", that is, "harmony between people". Those who win the hearts of the people will submit to it, and they will be invincible wherever they go. Those who lose people's hearts will do the opposite and collapse without attack. Therefore, paragraph 4 is by no means redundant.

Analysis of this paragraph

We usually use the phrase "get more help from the Tao, get less help from the Tao" to explain that people who are in line with justice can get support and help from many sides, and those who violate justice will fall into isolation and helplessness. Here, we understand "Tao" as "righteousness". So, what is justice? Modern Chinese Dictionary says: "Justice" means "just truth that is beneficial to the people". This is a modern understanding, but it comes down in one continuous line with its original meaning. "Tao helps more, Tao helps less" is a famous assertion of Mencius. Mencius Gong Sunchou said: "Those who gain the Tao will help more, while those who lose the Tao will help less. When there is little help, relatives will be there; Help more, and the world will be at peace. Take the world as you like and attack your relatives, so the gentleman wins without a fight. " The word "pan" here means "rebellion", which means betrayal and opposition. This passage means that there are many people who help the right people; For those who have lost their way, fewer people help him. When there are few people to help, even relatives will oppose him; When so many people help, the whole world will obey him. Take the obedience of the whole world to attack those who even oppose their relatives, or win the first world war without fighting. Mencius' "virtuous" and "immoral" people here do not refer to ordinary individuals, but to the king of a country. The king of a country is both the commander-in-chief of the war and the political leader. Mencius, by discussing the victory or defeat of the war, led to the view that "getting more help from the Tao and getting less help from the Tao". But in Mencius' view, "people's hearts turn back" is of fundamental significance to war and equally important to politics. Mencius said, "He who gets the people gets the world." There is a way to win the people: win their hearts and win the people. "Meaning, win the hearts of the people in the world, win the hearts of the people first. The so-called "winning the hearts of the people" means winning the support, support and help of the people. The so-called "winning the world" means "ruling the world" through benevolent government, rather than striving for the world by force alone. Benevolence is to convince people with virtue, make them convinced and join in automatically; Persuading people with strength can't convince people. In Mencius' view, the way to win the world is to implement benevolent government. Because benevolent governance is the policy of "winning its heart". So, how to "win its heart", that is, how to conduct benevolent government? Mencius put forward the idea of "protecting the people". Protecting people means caring for and protecting people. It requires the monarch to "gather what he wants with them without doing evil", that is, to accumulate what the people want for them without imposing what the people hate on them. What do people want? A rich and happy life, of course. Mencius believes that this is the fundamental focus of benevolent governance. Having done this, no force can stop the submission of the people's hearts and the whole world. The main reasons for "winning the war" are: "the weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as people's peace" and "helping them as much as possible will make the world peaceful".

Edit the entire paragraph

At the beginning of this essay, I put forward the view that "the weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as harmony with people", and pointed out that "harmony with people" is the primary condition for defeating the enemy. "Harmony between people" means "helping more" and "obeying the world" mentioned below, that is, the support and support of the people, which embodies Mencius' political thought of "valuing the people but neglecting the monarch". Song Zhuxi's evaluation of this chapter is: "Yin Shi said: He who speaks the world wins the hearts of the people." Jiao Xun's annotation in the Qing Dynasty is: "Man is more important than heaven and earth, so Qiu Min is called the son of heaven." It can be seen that this chapter is not about war, but about people's hearts, and it is about the importance of "king" (that is, "benevolent government") by war. Therefore, the article first compares the harmony between weather and geographical location, geographical location and people step by step, and points out that these three factors play different roles in the war; Finally, the conclusion that "those who gain the Tao will help more, and those who lose the Tao will help less" is deduced from human harmony to complete the argument of this paper. At the beginning of this chapter, the central argument is put forward and proved by a very general war example. Then, it is demonstrated theoretically, and the conclusion that "those who gain the Tao help more, those who lose the Tao help less" is drawn, and the essence of "human harmony" is clarified. At the end of the article, the "gentleman" who won "human harmony" and "victory in the war" is the conclusion, highlighting "human harmony" is the most important condition to determine the outcome of the war. The sentences in this article are neat, fluent, coherent and convincing. For example, when the author demonstrates that geographical position is not as good as human harmony, he first uses four parallel double negatives to fully develop the favorable conditions of "geographical position" possessed by the defender, and then makes a sharp turn to tell the result of failure, which makes the conclusion that "geographical position is not as good as human harmony" very convincing. For another example, when the author expounds his "Tao helps more", he also uses three negative parallelism sentences first, and naturally draws a conclusion; Then, through the comparison between "more help" and "less help", it is natural to deduce that "a gentleman can defeat the enemy without fighting."

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