Today, let's talk about whether there is a difference between the Chinese nation and other nations in terms of wealth, or in terms of the concept of money?
No matter what nationality people are, they all need wealth, because without this basic material condition, there is no way to live. The better the basic material conditions, the better our living conditions and the more comfortable life will be, right? That's what everybody does.
Then money, as a representative of wealth, or as a carrier of wealth, must also be liked by all nations. But the Chinese nation is a little special in this regard, and this one is very strange, that is, the Chinese nation advocates the kind of thing that does not love money, and thinks that if a person loves money, well, it seems to be a thing with a slightly lower taste; And not loving money seems to be a noble, elegant, and very commendable thing.
Now that I say this, some people may say that it is not, Chinese people are very fond of money, especially money fans. At this moment, I mean to look at the Chinese from a very long-term time dimension, and we Chinese show a great love of money, which is a matter of recent decades. If you have to pull the time a little farther away, you will find that in this mainstream value of the Chinese, there will be a concept that if people love money too much, at least it is a manifestation of low taste. People who have a higher taste should not care so much about wealth, and even say that they regard wealth as floating clouds, glory as dung, and gold and silver as dung, so that they are a high person.
So why have Chinese formed such a strange concept for a long time? Right?
As we said earlier, since ancient times, the Chinese have particularly emphasized that people should have some transcendence over animals, should have some transcendent characteristics, and should have some transcendent morality. In fact, from the perspective of this moral pursuit, the Chinese actually ask us not to be limited by this animality in ourselves. It is our animal side, and of course we want to have as much wealth as possible; But as human beings, we can't just be like an animal, just love money too much, as long as we have money, we should have something on the other side.
This makes us Chinese especially emphasize that we should not pursue that kind of ill-gotten gain, and we should put human things, such as morality, above this wealth. In other words, if our pursuit of wealth is contrary to morality, then we should not ask for such ill-gotten gains. We should pursue only those things that are beneficial, that are morally appropriate. For this kind of pursuit of wealth in line with morality, in fact, the Chinese do not reject it, nor do they despise it.
If you look at Confucius, he said, if I can get this kind of moral wealth, you ask me to do some very hard work for this, I go to lead other people's horses or something, I can accept it, I can do it. This notion is actually very Chinese, but it is also very correct. This is what I said since the Zhou Dynasty, the kind of attitude that the Chinese have formed since the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to put morality at the center and attach great importance to morality is very good.
It's not that we don't like wealth, it's not that we don't want it, it's not that there is anything good about being poor, there is nothing good about being poor, and being rich is a thing that we think is very good. So I think it's good, there's nothing wrong with that.
But later, for example, in the Mencius period, because there were some people who had some arguments with Mencius, let's call it a controversy of opinions. Mencius will emphasize that as human beings, for us, the righteousness is more important, and the interests are relatively secondary. So he will put these two in a relatively opposite position to compare, and then say, if there is a conflict between them, we should give up interests, give up the pursuit of wealth, and pursue morality, this kind of morality, and this kind of unique thing of human nature.
Is Mencius right about this?
Of course, he is also very correct, and his views are essentially no different from those of Confucius. But when he talks about this, because he is debating with others, he will put a lot of emphasis on this kind of righteousness and benefit, and if there is a conflict, what should we do?
Mencius used a metaphor that we Chinese are particularly familiar with, saying, "I also love fish, and I also love bear's paws, what if you can't have both?" Then I must eat bear's paws, not fish, that is, there are good ones who eat bad. He used this perspective to talk about the relationship between morality and wealth. That is, if wealth and morality cannot be both, then I choose morality over wealth, because this is the kind of thing that better reflects my human nature, the kind of thing that surpasses my own animal nature.
But Mencius doesn't mean that I will never eat fish, fish is a bad thing, fish should be disliked, that's not what it means. However, in the later period, these later Chinese who studied Confucianism slowly deviated a little. It's as if in their minds they have formed an opinion that we shouldn't look down on wealth, that we should not take wealth seriously, that we should treat gold and silver as dung, and that this is a noble person. The two "righteousness" and "profit" are opposed. In fact, it is not the true meaning of Mencius at all.
But there were many Chinese in the later period, and he went in this direction, for example, is it Wang Rong or who? I remember, he didn't mention the word money at all, he thought it was because he was an elegant person, and then his wife said you can't pretend? So when he was sleeping, he took a lot of money, blocked his bed all around, so that he couldn't get out of bed, and then saw if he could speak money. As a result, when he woke up, he found that there was money on all sides, so he said that he would remove this thing that was blocked here for me, and he didn't mention the word money. Because he thinks he's a superior person. The practice of not saying money is actually very extreme, and this practice is actually very abnormal.
So from a psychological point of view, from the former kind of reasonable, between "righteousness" and "profit", thinking that "righteousness" is higher than "profit", to the latter kind of opposition between these two, it becomes that we look down on "profit", and we only focus on "righteousness". I think in this place, this evolution of the Chinese, he is actually like some peoples, such as thinking that the neck is beautiful, and then making the neck longer and longer, and finally it has grown to **, which is the same as that truth.
We Chinese pursue a moral superiority, which is not a bad thing in itself. But in the future, this pursuit will become a kind of abnormality, and a culture called despising wealth and money will be formed. Obviously, this one is not in line with basic human nature, and it actually doesn't work.
But we found that the Chinese behind for a long, long time, in a sense, may be counted in thousands of years, and for more than a thousand years, they seem to have formed a rather strange psychological state. That is to say, although everyone actually wants to pursue wealth and profit, those who feel that they are of a higher level should act as if they don't care about money or profits, and only pursue morality. But the people who can really do this are actually a minority, and there are a few people who can really do it later, such as Hai Rui and the like, which are very few. For others, this becomes a common hypocrisy of the Chinese.
So in this matter, I think the performance of the Chinese for a long time is more problematic compared with other ethnic groups, that isWe cannot sincerely admit that we are pursuing our own interestsExcept for a few people who can really do it, that is, they really don't care about money, then there are many people who are actually in this place where what he says and what he actually does, and there will be an inconsistency. In psychological terms, there will be an inconsistency between his consciousness and his subconscious.
More than 40 years ago, before we called reform and opening up, in fact, this mainstream ideology in China was still like this. Before the reform and opening up, everyone thought that they didn't care about money at all, and that we did everything for the sake of revolution and serving the people, and not for any personal gain at all.
Although everyone says so, it is a small number of people who can really do this, and most people have actually become very inconsistent in their words and deeds. Therefore, after the reform and opening up, it means that we have a new orientation, that is, there is no problem in our love of money, we pursue prosperity, and we strive to make ourselves rich first, this is right, this is correct, and this is worthy of encouragement, not criticism.
It was only after the reform and opening up that we made a change in this place, and this change actually brought about a lot of changes in everyone's behavior. It's just that many people have a lot of energy, and they really use it in the pursuit of wealth, and then many people really get rich. This has also made our whole country, and as a whole, richer and richer. Therefore, after the reform and opening up, this transformation in this area actually makes us more real, and this becomes more real, which also brings some real returns, good returns.
Of course, it also brings some new problems, that is, the spring seems to have run to the other side, and the pendulum has run to the other side, and many of us now only focus on wealth, not morality. He loves morality and has no morality, anyway, I just need to make money. And then in this way, a large number of people who are rich and unkind were born, such as characters like Xu Jiayin.
In a sense, this is also a psychological phenomenon. Sometimes we are repressed in some way, and when we release this repression, it is possible for him to become overindulgent in this area. Psychologically, it is easy to have such a pendulum effect.
But I hope that slowly swinging between the two ends of the matter can go from extreme to less extreme. In the end, we go back to the earliest point in China, that is, "a gentleman loves money and takes it in the right way". We love wealth, but we don't put it above human morality, and we don't want to covet that kind of ill-gotten gain. I think it's great if that's the case, not only for wealth, but for some other things.
In the past, Chinese tradition once went to a place that seemed to be a little bit off, and we needed to slowly correct it, but in the process, it was easy to go to the other extreme, and we needed to go back and adjust it. Probably so, turn it around, and slowly adjust it to a suitable position. Speaking of this other aspect, uh, we'll talk about it next time.
end
Let psychological growth come to life.
Let life have temperature.
Author |Zhu Jianjun.
Edit |Nei Xiaoming.