Full text of Hong Yingming's "Vegetable Roots Tan" (菜根谭)

Full text:

To hear words that are contrary to the ear, and to have things in one's heart that are pleasant to the ear, are the cornerstones of the cultivation of virtue. If one's words are pleasant to the ear and one's heart is pleased with everything, then one's life is buried in hemlock. Blistering wind and rain, birds and birds; clearing the sun and light wind, grass and trees are happy. Can see that heaven and earth can not be a day without peace, the human heart can not be a day without the spirit of joy. Fat, sweet and sweet is not the real taste, the real taste is just light; magical and extraordinary is not the most people, the most people are just often.

Heaven and earth are silent and motionless, and the qi no breath stops a little; the sun and the moon are all night Mercedes-Benz, and the chaste Ming is not easy; therefore, the gentleman should be idle to have a tight mind, busy place to have a leisurely fun. Late at night, sitting alone and watching the heart, then realize that the delusion is poor and true only dew, each in this to get a great opportunity to fun.

Both realize that the real and delusion is difficult to escape, but also in this to get a great shame. Chenopodiaceae mouth amaranth intestines, more than pure and clean; gun clothes and jade food, Gan maidservant. The cover of the will to be clear, and the section from the fat and sweet loss also.

Vernacular translation:

If a person's ears can always listen to some unpleasant words, and his heart often thinks of some unsatisfactory things, then this is a good lesson in dunning character and encouraging virtue. On the contrary, if every word sounds good and everything is satisfactory, then it is like burying one's life in poison. In stormy weather, even the birds of prey are sad and anxious; in clear and sunny days, even the grass and trees appear to be thriving.

From this it can be seen that heaven and earth cannot go a day without the air of peace and good fortune, and the earth cannot go a day without the air of gladness. Wine, food and meat are not real delicacies, in fact, the real delicacies are just those tea and rice; strange and extraordinary people, are not really great people on earth, in fact, the real great people are just those who are ordinary and strange people.

As we see every day, heaven and earth seem to be motionless, in fact, the activities of heaven and earth did not stop for a moment. In the morning the sun rises, in the evening the moon is in the sky, the sun and the moon are visible day and night in the Mercedes, but in the universe, the sun and the moon's light is eternal and unchanging. So a clever and wise gentleman, weekday leisure chest to have some plans, in order to cope with unexpected changes.

When you are busy, you should also be busy and enjoy a little fun in life. A person in the dead of night, sitting alone quietly observing their own heart, will find that their delusion of the whole eliminated and the true flow, when the true flow of the time, feel the spirit of the spirit is very comfortable, the application of the opportunity to be free to arise.

If this kind of sincerity could always be found, it would be very good, but it is difficult to eliminate all the hope, so the mind feels ashamed and uneasy, and only in the end does it repent and have the intention to change for the better. The people who can bear to eat a light meal, their conduct is mostly like ice general clear, pure jade general chaos white.

And those who wear beautiful clothes and eat delicacies of the sea, most of them are willing to make a groveling face. For a man's ambition can only be expressed in a state of indifference, and a man's integrity is lost in the greed of materialistic enjoyment.

Origin: From Hong Yingming's <> in Ming Dynasty.

Extended Information:

Extended Information. p>Composition Background:

Hong Yingming, his life story is unknown. It is presumed that he was probably a native of Jintan County and a hermit who lived in the mountains for a long time. The book was probably written and published in the middle or end of the Wanli reign. At this time, Emperor Shenzong's rule was incompetent, eunuchs were in power, the dynasty was in disarray, and the party was in turmoil.

The internal and external troubles that had begun to appear in the Jiajing Dynasty had become even more serious, and the minds of the educated people were unusually dull, unable to free themselves from the very intense social conflicts at that time, and so there were people who expressed the voice of the times in ink and brushstrokes.

The "Vegetable Roots of Tan" distills the essence of traditional Chinese culture, paying particular attention to the adjustment of social and cultural mentality from the perspective of the round-centered exposition can be said to be outstandingly insightful, the history of China has produced a large number of schools of thought, in which more or less involved in the norms of social and cultural mentality.

But society has almost completely ignored these morals and has acted on its own, with the weak and the strong emerging and intensifying. The difference between the high taste of traditional culture and the low level of social mores is a world of difference. This is a very peculiar cultural phenomenon in Chinese history.