Sacrifice life for righteousness.
Sacrificing life and taking righteousness, I can do what I want for fish, and I want for bear's paws, and you can't have both. Sacrifice life and take the bear's paw, life is also what I want, and I also want it. The two can't get both, and those who sacrifice their lives to take righteousness are also. This is what Mencius told the people.
If you are willing to give something, you will get it, and if you have it, you will have to give it. Life always needs to make the choice of giving and taking, how to make it? This is a very profound knowledge, and it is also a direct manifestation of a person's values. Chinese are good at weighing the way, the way of making trade-offs is very exquisite, and everyone has the heart of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Before making a choice, we must weigh it in our hearts, combine the light and the heavy, and work together to meet the harm, so that we can make a choice only when we know it in our hearts.
The abyss of success is late, some take retirement as respect, and some take sacrifice as virtue. At some point, we can't completely weigh the benefits and disadvantages to give up, and there are problems of attachment and non-attachment between giving and taking, as well as problems involving the value judgment of life. Different ideals and beliefs will have different paths and choices.
You can't have both fish and bears, and you can't give up the fish and take the bear's paws. Because bear's paws are more precious than fish, and being born in righteousness cannot be both. Sacrifice life to take righteousness, because righteousness is more important than life. Life is precious, but righteousness is more important than life, so you can give up your life for righteousness. Life is noble for all things, survival is the instinct of any creature, ants still steal life, and people are no exception.
The reason why man is different from other animals is precisely because man does not live by instinct, he also has thoughts. Confucius said that there is killing and killing, and Mencius said that sacrificing life to take righteousness, and the views of the two are the same. One cannot abandon morality, bow down and mourn, and violate one's conscience in order to survive. Sima Qian also said: People's inherent consciousness is heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than Hongmao, for the people to die for the world and the country, heavier than Mount Tai to die for their own strength, lighter than Hongmao.
In the long history, China is a heroic hero with many iron bones, who threw their heads and shed their blood for the country and the nation, and wrote a legend that can be sung and cried step by step. For example, Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang, Qi Jiguang, Deng Shichang, and so on, they regarded death as home, sacrificed their lives for righteousness, and defended the ideals and beliefs of a nation with their blood and lives.
The trade-off between remaining and death may be an extreme state that is rarely encountered in real life, but the dilemma can be seen everywhere. Such as fame and morality, money and conscience, this worldly and ideal. Most of people's lives are similar to choices and trade-offs, when faced with whether they have the courage to sacrifice their lives for righteousness, in the real society in the face of all kinds of people and things, many of the initial cuteness and stubbornness are slowly worn out, and finally become drifting with the flow, and the night will be left behind.
Lu Xun once said: A true warrior dares to face the direct, dare to face the bleak life, and dare to face the dripping blood. If a person wants to stick to his ideals and beliefs in the tempering of reality and not lose himself, those choices that do not involve life and death are sometimes not easier than sacrificing one's life for righteousness, and may require greater courage and wisdom.
It is really difficult to sacrifice one's life for righteousness, in fact, when there are some choices in real life that do not involve life and death, it even requires greater courage and wisdom than sacrificing one's life, but it is not simple.