Nonsense and plain talk

  Talking nonsense and telling the truth

  There's a saying in our hometown: Chengyuan's nonsense is He Lao's truth.

  I heard from old people that over a hundred years ago, there was a person named He Chengyuan in our hometown. When he was young, his family was very poor and everyone looked down on him.

  One year in January, He Chengyuan saw that everyone was free and suggested repairing the village road. Originally a harmless and beneficial sentence, not only did no one listen to him, but they also ridiculed him saying: "He Chengyuan's nonsense."

  Years later, He Chengyuan became rich, with a wealth of millions and a large number of cattle and sheep. As a result, everyone respectfully called him "Old Master He". One year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, villagers nearby came to pay their respects to Old Master He. He Chengyuan took advantage of the opportunity when everyone was gathered together to pay their respects and intentionally said: "Today you are all free, why not go up the mountain to cut down some coffin boards? This is something that every household will need sooner or later."

  It was originally an inauspicious fart talk, but everyone nodded: Mr. He's true words.

  He Chengyuan listened to everyone's flattering words, extremely angry, his face iron-blue said: "At the beginning, my family was poor, to tell the truth, you guys were nonsense; now that I've become rich, saying nonsense you guys take it as true. If all the people in the world are like you, speaking blindly, then no one can hear a single true word."

  Indeed, whether in the past, present or future, there have always been some people who treat true words as nonsense and nonsense as true words. They devalue the true words spoken by those of low status to the point of being worthless, while blowing up casual remarks made by those of high status and great power into something earth-shattering.

  They do so with a certain purpose. As the "Zou Ji satirizes Qi Wang to accept remonstrance" says: My wife flatters me, because she is partial to me; my concubine flatters me, because she fears me; guests flatter me, because they want something from me.

  Zou Ji clearly knew that he was not as handsome as Xu Gong, who was known as the number one good-looking man in the state of Qi. However, his wife, concubines and friends all said that he was more handsome than Xu Gong. Why did they say this? The reason is that they were partial to me, afraid of me, and wanted something from me.

  Zou Ji's wife said so because she loved and favored him, as the saying goes 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. This is originally nothing wrong. But it is precisely this harmless remark that will make those husbands who think they are superior float high, unaware of the height of heaven and earth, and ultimately end up with a tragic fate. How many men in the world have lost their will, position, dignity, reason, and finally walked on an irreversible path due to the whispers of their wives?

  Zou Ji's concubine, fearing abandonment by her husband, tried every means to curry favor. His guests, hoping for future favors, flattered him excessively. They spoke blindly with the intention of leaving a good impression on Zou Ji and paving the way for their own future prospects.

  However, Zou Ji was not the kind of person they imagined who only listened to flattering words. He had self-awareness and was not confused by their eloquent speeches. Instead, he told Qi Wei Wang about his own personal experiences, making Qi Wei Wang understand this principle as well. Qi Wei Wang adopted Zou Ji's suggestion, recruited talents and opened up the channels for people to speak out, and after several years, the State of Qi became a powerful country among the vassal states.

  I have a classmate who, after graduating from university, was assigned to work in a county town unit. In the first two years after he arrived, his colleagues looked down on him. Once, during a meeting, they discussed how to improve the environmental hygiene of the unit, and everyone had their say, but no one came up with any good suggestions. My classmate saw that everyone was indecisive, so he proposed that the unit's members take turns being in charge of environmental hygiene. It was originally a good proposal, but everyone ridiculed him. A few years later, he climbed to the position of bureau chief. As soon as he took office, he convened a meeting with the same agenda: how to improve the unit's environmental hygiene? Everyone spoke up again, but after discussing it back and forth, they still couldn't come up with a good solution.

  "In my opinion, let's just go back to the old routine and have members of our unit take turns being on duty. I'll start, and then others can follow suit. That should work, right?" my classmate said seriously.

  "Bravo, Director!"

  "The director leads by example with his physical strength, he is truly a role model for us to learn from."

  "...Everyone was chattering and praising him with words of admiration that never ended."

  The same person says the same words, why is there such a big difference? Is this what they call human feelings being warm and cold, and worldly affairs being hot and cold? How ridiculous and pitiful!

  Since the reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping once again advocated for the party's fine tradition and style of "seeking truth from facts", and also required everyone to "be honest people, speak honest words, and do honest things."

  Being an honest person, speaking the truth and doing practical things is a principle for being human. Why must we go against our conscience to deliberately try to please those in power, do things we don't want to do and say things we don't want to say? Why must we be overly critical of ordinary people who are of lower social status?

  Above the head, there are gods and spirits. By the way, I'd like to offer a piece of advice: never take true words as nonsense, nor nonsense as true words. When doing things, one should be able to look up to heaven without shame, and look down at earth without shame, only then can one be considered a true gentleman or a great man.