I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 24 Yuan’s eight-character mantra
Lu Zhi is a qualified Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, and Yuan Shu is also a qualified outputter.

He looked at Lu Zhi, who had a serious face, and smiled slightly.

"If you want to follow your conscience, you must first clarify your ambitions!"

Yuan Shu said slowly: "The ancients once said that a teacher has a name. The most important starting point of everything is a name. For learners, this name is ambition. Without ambition, people can stand. Without ambition, it is like a tree without roots, or water without a source. It will not last long.

Ambition cannot be against conscience. For example, if you are determined to become a corrupt official since you were in school and embezzle ten or twenty million yuan after taking office, this ambition goes against the conscience that people are born with, is self-contradictory, and is despised by others. It cannot stand at all.

Ambition should be in line with conscience. You should be able to tell your parents, relatives, friends, and colleagues about it without feeling ashamed, guilty, or unable to speak. Instead, you can say it out loud and with dignity. This is a good ambition that is in line with conscience.

After establishing your ambition, what should you do? Next, you need to study hard. Having ambition is a good thing, but people are not born with knowledge. If you want to realize your ambition, you must study hard to enrich yourself, and then you can use knowledge to achieve your ambition. Otherwise, how can you achieve your ambition?
Among you, there are those who study diligently, and there are those who pretend to study diligently but are actually lazy. You can reflect on yourselves. Anyone who is lazy in learning has no ambition or his ambition cannot be established because it does not conform to his inner conscience. Therefore, he has no inner motivation and cannot study diligently.

Ambitious students should also pay attention, as I said before, there are smart people, average people, and dull people. There are fewer smart people and more average and dull people. So a diligent person may not necessarily achieve good results, and even if he tries his best, he may not be able to beat a smart person who does it casually.

However, smart people should not be proud and complacent about this and look down on others, and mediocre and dull people should not feel inferior and sad and give up on themselves. We must know that those who set ambitions and work hard to achieve them are worthy of praise and respect.

Intelligence is a gift that you are born with, and it cannot be improved by acquired knowledge. If you try your best but still cannot catch up with the smart people, should you feel bad? No, you should be proud, because you have tried your best and you have done everything you can, which is praiseworthy.

Having said that, Yuan Shu paused, took a deep breath, and asked a question.

"Then, there is a question worth paying attention to. The average and dull people are not as smart as the smart people, so do they have value?"

Yuan Shu looked around at the students and saw that their eyes were fixed on him, so he nodded with satisfaction.

"At the beginning, when Xiao He died, Cao Shen became prime minister. As soon as he took office, he dismissed the smart officials who were proactive and wanted to make a difference, and promoted a group of officials who only knew how to follow the rules and regulations. Then he drank and had fun every day, and did not do practical work. So someone sued Emperor Xiaohui for this.

Xiaohui was very angry and summoned Cao Shen, accusing him of failing to live up to his expectations. Cao Shen then asked Xiaohui, "Who is better, Your Majesty, or Emperor Gaozu?" Xiaohui said, "Of course Emperor Gaozu is better." Cao Shen then asked, "Who is better, Xiao He or me?" Xiaohui said, "You are far worse than Xiao He."

Cao Shen nodded and said, "If that's the case, why should I change the strategy formulated by Xiao He? Isn't his strategy well executed? My talent is not as good as his. There is no need to change his strategy. I can just continue to execute according to his strategy. Why bother?"
The same is true for removing those smart officials. Smart people are never satisfied with the status quo and always want to innovate and make continuous progress. However, the implementation of policies requires time to test the results, and the people also need time to adapt to the policies. Frequent policy changes will make it impossible for people to adapt and will cause chaos.

That is why I promote those honest officials. Although these people do not have great talents, they can do things according to the rules and will not do anything out of line. They are excellent executors. For the vast majority of the people, they are the most suitable managers. After hearing this, Xiaohui suddenly realized.

Later people put Cao Shen and Xiao He together and called them wise ministers. Gentlemen, Cao Shen's talent is not as good as Xiao He's, which is recognized by the world, but the two of them are both called wise ministers. Why? Through this story, I think you should understand. "

There was silence for a while, everyone seemed to be thinking.

Lu Zhi paused for a moment and spoke at the right time.

"Mr. Yuan means that smart people, average people, and dull people all have their own value in existence. As long as you have a firm ambition and study hard, no matter how high or low your talent is, you will always find a place to use your talents?"

"Mr. Lu understands what I mean!"

Yuan Shu smiled and said, "Gentlemen, as long as you set up aspirations that are in line with your conscience, study hard for it, ask questions without hesitation, and accumulate knowledge, then even if your results are not as good as those of the more gifted, how can you not expect to become the second or third Cao Shen?"

The onlookers seemed to understand something, and many of them looked enlightened.

So Yuan Shu struck while the iron was hot and continued teaching.

"Besides setting goals and studying hard, is there anything else important? Of course there is, and that is correcting one's mistakes. I have said before that no one is a saint or sage, and even saints and sages have made mistakes. The reason they are called saints and sages is not because they do not make mistakes, but because they have the courage to correct their mistakes.

It doesn't matter if you make a mistake. The key is to correct it. The courage to correct it is a very precious virtue, because there are many people in this world who dare not correct their mistakes. Some people feel that they have made too many mistakes and can no longer correct them, so they simply give up on themselves and continue to make mistakes until they die.

This kind of person is not unaware that he has made mistakes, but he does not have the courage to correct them. Not only has he done something wrong, he is also a coward, a very shameful person. That is why the ancients emphasized that it is not a big deal to make mistakes, but the most important thing is to correct them. If you make a mistake and dare not correct it, that is the most despairing thing.

Finally, I would like to say that self-correction is closely related to self-cultivation. You all know that correction requires courage, but where does courage come from? Some people are strong and firm in their hearts, and they can generate courage from their hearts to correct themselves. Such people are very excellent and worthy of praise.

However, most people do not have this courage. Once they make a mistake, they are afraid of punishment, so they cover it up and do not let anyone know, until the mistake becomes bigger and bigger and cannot be made up for, and the person goes to destruction. This kind of situation happens a lot, and at this time, it is very important to blame others for their mistakes.

When people walk between heaven and earth, they will inevitably deal with and make friends with other people. Some people make friends just for eating, drinking and having fun, and drag each other down into depravity. These are called bad friends. But some people will encourage each other to study. These are called good teachers and helpful friends.

I hope that everyone can become each other's mentor and friend, and at the same time, pay more attention to encouraging each other to do good. As a friend, you should have the courage to point out your friend's mistakes and urge him to correct them, but at the same time, it should be noted that encouraging others to do good also requires methods and ways.

Everyone has a sense of self-esteem and shame. If you point out mistakes in public in order to criticize others, it will inevitably hurt their self-esteem and make them feel disgusted and rebellious. This will not only fail to criticize others, but will also have the opposite effect and push your friends down a more wrong path. This is not what good friends should do. I recommend that when you criticize each other, you should pay as much attention as possible to maintaining your friend's self-esteem, point out his mistakes in a more tactful and gentle manner in private, and urge him to correct them. If you can do this, I think you are a better mentor than a good teacher.

As a student, a person, or a friend, if one can set goals, study hard, correct mistakes, and do good deeds, follow his conscience, put his conscience into action, and stick to it throughout his life, then even if this person is only average or even stupid, I think he can be called a sage. "

Yuan Shu refined the results of his discussion with Lu Zhi and extracted the important things.

Of course, it was more of a "reference" to Mr. Wang Yangming's opinions, which were passed on to the surrounding students by Yuan on behalf of Mr. Wang Yangming, who was not yet born and could not object.

Mr. Wang shouldn’t be unhappy, right?
Yuan Shu speculated so.

But in the final analysis, these eight words are really the important way and method to walk on the path of conscience. If you can follow them and keep your heart, while doing these eight words, you will become a scholar with spirit and energy.

He is also a righteous person who will not go astray.

As for the eight-character mantra "proposed" by Yuan Shu, Lu Zhi, who was the first to know it, was greatly impressed.

Among them, he particularly praised "demanding goodness".

He believed that treacherous villains and corrupt officials would always gather in groups and support each other, which would corrupt the atmosphere, while upright gentlemen could only fight alone and were powerless, which was very incorrect.

Past knowledge only teaches us how to do the right thing, but does not tell us how to persist.

However, the new ideas proposed by Yuan Shu pointed out a clear path for everyone, telling them how to persist and even introduced the concept of unity and forming a group.

If villains can form a group, why can't gentlemen form a group?

The power of one person is limited, but the power of many people is unlimited. Cowards always say that they are alone and dare not fight against evil. Well, I will unite a large group of righteous people to act together and fight against evil. What else do you have to say?
Yuan Shu was very surprised by Lu Zhi's insight.

He just made a small start, and Lu Zhi immediately thought of this point, so he further followed Lu Zhi's idea and expressed the initial idea of establishing an organization.

Many hands make light work, the fire burns higher, the power of one person is the power of millions, when the wave of conscience rolls in and forms a scale, even the deepest darkness will be intimidated.

And when fighting against darkness and evil, there will always be dangers, people will get hurt, and even people will sacrifice themselves.

At this time, he also needs a strong and trustworthy organization to support him, take care of his family, guard his backyard, and give him the confidence to fight.

"Everyone has his family, and the biggest weakness is often in his family. The treacherous cannot suppress a gentleman, so they threaten him with his family, which often has a good effect. At this time, if there is a backer who can protect his family, then he does not need to worry and can fight against him with all his strength."

Yuan Shu suggested: "Villains can form cliques for personal gain, and gentlemen should unite to fight against them. What do you think, Mr. Lu?"

Lu Zhi agreed with this at the time and thought Yuan Shu was very forward-looking, but the two had not had time to discuss how to form an organization and how to structure it.

After all, even if an organization appears now, there are only two of them and no more people.

Once more people join in and become people of conscience, it will not be too late to seek an organization.

Lu Zhi had full confidence in Yuan Shu's lectures. He believed that once this set of preliminary theoretical methods began to be spread, it would resonate with many people. In addition, Yuan Shu's academic reputation and family background would surely attract the interest of many people.

Make them interested, let them listen to lectures, let them think and weigh things, then naturally there will be awakened people and people with a sense of shame who will gather around Yuan Shu. These people are the ones with conscience and are willing to move forward.

When such a group of people are united, that is when new schools and new theories emerge.

To this end, Lu Zhi and Yuan Shu performed such a play on the same stage, and the first performance achieved an explosive effect.

When the lecture ended, Yuan Shu and Lu Zhi still didn't know what the specific effect was.

But just one night later, the next morning, Lu Zhi, who was outside gathering information, came running over and told Yuan Shu that the news had spread. Yesterday's lecture had been widely circulated outside.

Those who have listened to the lectures have already taken out what they have heard. In just one night, basically the entire group of Ma's disciples and students were fully covered, and it aroused an extremely enthusiastic response.

(End of this chapter)