Thousand Characters

Chapter 53

[Original text]

The fan is round and fluffy, and the silver candle is bright.Sleeping day and night, blue bamboo shoots are like beds.

【Note】

Wan fan: a white and round fan made of juan used by girls in ancient times, usually with inscriptions or paintings on it.Wei Huang: The way the fire is showing off.Sleep: Eyes closed, peacefully asleep.Sleep: to sleep in bed.Mian and Mei both mean sleep and rest, but the emphasis is different. Mian is more casual, while Mei is more formal.Blue: A kind of grass used to extract cyan in ancient times.Elephant bed: A bed decorated with ivory.

【Interpretation】

The round silk fans used by girls are white and elegant; the silvery white candles are bright and dazzling.Whether it is a casual nap with eyes closed at noon during the day, or a formal sleep at night, there are bamboo mats woven with green bamboo mats and large beds decorated with ivory.

【allusion】

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the three major families of Mengsun, Shusun, and Jisun were very powerful in the state of Lu, almost controlling the political power of the entire country.Lu Aigong, the king of the state of Lu, was very dissatisfied with this, but there was nothing he could do about it. Because these three families were all descendants of the previous king, Duke Huan, they had been officials for generations.Gradually, the contradictions of this power struggle developed and became sharper.Duke Ai of Lu has always wanted to weaken the power of the three major families and regain the power of the country.He heard that there was a man named Zai Wo, a disciple of Confucius, who inherited Confucius' benevolence, righteousness and morality, and was intelligent, so he went to visit.After Lu Aigong saw Zaiwo, he asked him in a very subtle way: "Do you know what kind of wood is generally used by the people to make the god of the land?" Zaiwo replied: "According to what I heard, Xia People used pine wood, people in the Yin Dynasty used cypress wood, and in the Zhou Dynasty, people used chestnut wood to make them. The use of chestnut wood means to make the people tremble with fear. Zaiwo used chestnut wood to make the people tremble. This is to persuade Duke Ai of Lu to adopt The decisive measures made the opponent tremble with fear and dare not continue to run rampant. Confucius was very angry when he heard Zaiwo's answer. He knew that the situation of the three major families of Mengsun, Shusun, and Jisun did not form overnight. It has a profound historical background, and such a strong power group cannot be wiped out with deterrence or simple measures alone. Confucius felt that the idea of ​​Zai Wo was too one-sided and naive. But Confucius did not blame Zai Wo, but said tolerantly: "There is no need to explain what has been done, there is no need to persuade what has been done, and there is no need to pursue what has already passed. "This story comes from "The Analects of Confucius Bayi". The original words of Confucius are as follows: "Zi heard it and said: don't talk about what happened, don't advise what happened, and don't blame the past. "The idiom we use in our daily life" let bygones be bygones" comes from this sentence of Confucius.

(End of this chapter)