After knocking on the door and waiting for a while, there was a "squeak" sound, and a gap opened in the courtyard door, and the eyes of a middle-aged man showed through. After looking at it for a moment, he slowly opened the gap, and then a confused face appeared. This middle-aged man stood up, bowed to everyone, and then asked: "I am in charge of Miao, may I ask you..."
Zhao Qiu and others were about to report their names when they were stopped by Chen Chong with a wave of his hand. He said slowly: "Please tell Mr. You'an that Chen Chong is here to visit."
The middle-aged man was stunned after hearing this. After repeatedly looking at Chen Chong's blind eyes, he still asked hesitantly: "I wonder which Chen Chong is the gentleman talking about?"
"It's Chen Chong from Yingchuan. Not long ago, young An Gong sent me a letter from Luoyang. I was delayed for a long time and didn't come to keep the appointment until now. I'm very sorry." After that, Chen Chong took out the letter from his arms. After the letter of invitation was handed out with both hands, the scene was a little cold for a while. There was only the sound of the yellow dog wagging its tail under his feet. After a while, Chen Chong heard his respectful reply: "It's really rude for the dragon to come from afar." Yes, but my master is still serving wine in the ancestral hall, so please wait in the courtyard for a while."
Entering the courtyard, Chen Chong smelled a faint fragrance of flowers. He walked slowly following the scent, and identified it as a plum blossom. However, it was still early in the season, and the tree was full of buds. Chen Chong gently touched the gathered petals, and his hands were stained with some cool moisture. It was obvious that he had just Watered.
After waiting for a while, Guan Ning had not yet appeared, and Zhao Qiu and others gradually showed impatient expressions. Guan Miao explained: "My master is indeed very cumbersome in his work. Every time he salutes, he is meticulous. It has not changed in decades. Please bear with me." Only then did Zhao Qiu say that it is not a problem. After all, everyone has heard of this. Yes, it was said that Guan Ning had to observe filial piety for his mother for an hour every day. Everyone thought it was a piece of gossip, but it was only when he waited that he realized it was such torture.
After waiting for another two-quarters of an hour, someone finally walked out of the backyard quickly, it was Beihai Longwei Guan Ning. Guan Ning was over seventy years old, and his hair and beard were almost white. However, he was eight feet tall and had a long eyebrow. Even though he was wearing a long coarse cloth gown, he still showed the air of a gentleman in his elegant clothes. The entourage's eyes lit up when they saw it, and then affected by his temperament, they were afraid of exposing Chen Chong's ugly face, so they were overly nervous and at a loss.
Although Chen Chong couldn't see him, he respected Guan Ning very much along the way. After the two met, they both bowed to each other humbly and then exchanged greetings. To everyone's expectation, the two talked very casually, like old acquaintances who had known each other for a long time, not at all as solemn as Zhao Qiu and others thought. Then Guan Ning took Chen Chong to sit on the wooden couch in the house. It is worth noting that the wooden couch was extremely old, and when Guan Ning knelt down on the couch, it could be seen that there were two holes in the mat between his knees. It turned out that for decades, Guan Ning never sat on the floor, but always stood up and bent his knees. Such a solemn posture even wore out the mat.
Although Chen Chong couldn't see it, he still sat in the same posture as Guan Ning. They chatted about their experiences from all over the world. After a while, they finally came to the topic of Jiao Xian. Chen Chong asked Guan Ning: "I heard rumors in Taiyuan that Jiao Jun ascended to immortality during the day. I wonder if it is true or false?"
Guan Ning did not answer immediately, but asked, stroking his beard: "Do you think the dragon head is real or fake?"
Chen Chong smiled and said: "I didn't see it with my own eyes, so I naturally thought it was a lie. If I believed it was true, I would have practiced Taoism with Jiao Jun thirty years ago. How could there be such an agreement?"
Guan Ning laughed when he heard this, waved to Guan Miao to add charcoal to the brazier, then rolled up his sleeves and sighed: "Long Shou is right. Jiao Jun actually died of illness. During those two years, he felt that his end was coming. In On the top of the mountain, he failed to achieve enlightenment, so he buried himself in the deep forest. When the villagers saw no trace of him, they thought he had attained enlightenment and left. They spread rumors and spread rumors, and finally ended up like this." He lamented about it: "In troubled times, everyone I use mystical cultivation to pursue liberation, but unfortunately, I still don’t know anyone who can really achieve enlightenment. From this perspective, perhaps the Buddhist theory of Nirvana is more practical, but even so, we in this world cannot see it. arrive."
"Oh?" This was completely consistent with Chen Chong's views. It inevitably gave him a feeling of being a confidant, but at the same time, it also made him curious. Instead, he asked: "Is it possible that Brother You'an is not cultivating a way to escape from the world?" Dao?"
Guan Ning shook his head slightly, pointed at himself and said: "Longshou is joking, I am still a Confucian scholar, but a failed Confucian scholar."
Chen Chong was stunned when he heard the words, and then he listened slightly, expressing his willingness to listen attentively, and then listened to Guan Ning continue: "When I was young, I studied abroad and had friends all over the world, but my real best friends are with Hua Ziyu and Bing Genju. You two, the world calls the three of us a dragon in the North Sea. Now think about it, although the name is a bit exaggerated, at that time, we were young and vigorous, and compared with the sages of the past generations, we still felt that this title was stingy! Hi!" Speaking of this , he put his hands together and laughed, with a look of nostalgia on his face: "It was still the Guanghe period. We all said that we would be famous ministers who govern the world, and we made an appointment with each other to see who could achieve two thousand stones first!"
"It's just..." Guan Ning glanced at Chen Chong, and then said slowly: "Probably because we became the disciples of Duke Taiqiu, and party restrictions were still popular at that time, no one dared to use the three of us."
Chen Chong was silent when he heard this, but Guan Ning said it was indeed true. At that time, he won the debate at Taixue and won the title of Xiping Dragon Head. However, because his grandfather was imprisoned by the party, he was not awarded the title of Lang Guan he deserved. Even though he joined the army to conquer Xianbei during the Guanghe period and made many military exploits, he still acted as an aide. It was not until the Yellow Turban Rebellion that the imperial court lifted the party prison sentence and he was officially awarded an official position. Guan Ning must have suffered from this kind of trouble.
Sure enough, Guan Ning continued: "After we had no way to pray, the three of us returned to Beihai, saying that although the way of the emperor was unclear, we could not give up because of this. We might as well study at home first, while nourishing our energy and clarifying our minds, while waiting for something promising. Opportunity."
"But many things are easier said than done. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the imperial court lifted the shackles of the party, some people did come to recruit us as subordinates, but none of them had high official positions. The three of us thought very highly of ourselves, so naturally none of us had any Agree, until the fourth year of Zhongping, Wang Fen, the governor of Jizhou, sent someone to come to us, saying that we wanted to do a big undertaking, but in fact it was to depose the emperor."
Everyone else was shocked when they heard that Wang Fen deposed the emperor. Now everyone knew about it, but they didn't expect that even Guan Ning and the others had been invited. Guan Ning said as if no one else was there: "I told Genju and Ziyu that we are here." As a disciple of a saint, even if you cannot benefit the world, you must abide by the principles of loyalty and filial piety. To participate in such chaos is really disloyal to the ministers. How will you deal with it in the future? But Ziyu didn't listen. He couldn't bear the loneliness. I was very tempted, so I followed him, but he came back a few days later. I thought he had changed his mind. But it turned out that he said that Wang Fen was not talented enough and the trip would be a failure, so he came back to avoid trouble."
Speaking of this, Guan Ning took a rare pause and showed an expression of distress. He said to Chen Chong very frankly: "This incident has hit me hard. I have been determined to help the country since I was a child, but I can't help the king above, and I can't clarify it below." In the officialdom, even one's own friends find it difficult to dissuade them. Apart from reading, what is the use of this sage's teaching? It's useless!" Guan Ning laughed again, but Chen Chong could clearly hear the bitter smile, "Later, Qingzhou suffered from successive wars. , disasters continued, hunger and cold spread all over the land, and corpses were scattered thousands of miles away, I became even more convinced. Being a Confucian scholar who only knows how to talk is actually useless! So I got to know many hermits like Jiao Jun. "
"But Brother You'an said that he doesn't hide from the world." Chen Chong asked, "What's the reason?"
Guan Ning did not directly answer Chen Chong's question. He also raised a question and asked Chen Chong: "Longshou thinks when is the most valuable time in the master's life?"
And Chen Chong almost blurted out: "A gentleman is poor, but a villain is so poor."
The general idea of this sentence is that a gentleman will stick to his principles even if he is in trouble, while a villain will act recklessly when encountering difficulties.
This sentence was spoken by Confucius to his student Zilu when he was besieged by political enemies between Chen and Cai, and was about to run out of food. The reason why they encountered such a dilemma was that the Chu State planned to appoint Confucius, and the political opponents of the Chen and Cai States were afraid that Confucius would counterattack them after he gained power, so they planned to starve Confucius to death and not let him reach the Chu State. When Confucius said these words, he seemed to be unshakable, but was he really so? In fact, this was not the case. This disaster was indeed unprecedented for him. Not only did he suffer from hunger, but he also had to sit back and watch many of his beloved disciples leave him. Confucius also felt worried and hesitant in his heart. He often said that benevolent people enjoy mountains and wise people enjoy water, to show off that his soul is equal to that of heaven and earth. But at this time, the green mountains could not give him an answer, and the flowing water could not give him comfort. He sat in the green grass and kept stroking his own body. Qin and Xiao, but no matter how much he loves this world, he has to face the reality that he is about to starve to death.
Finally one day, Confucius couldn't help it anymore. He called all the students together and asked them the same question one by one: "Is there anything wrong with my opinion? Why did I end up in this situation?" Zilu replied: " Maybe our kindness is not enough, so others do not trust us, maybe our wisdom is not enough, so others are not willing to let us go." But Confucius denied it and said: "If a benevolent person will definitely make people believe, then how could Boyi Shuqi do it? Starved to death in Shouyang Mountain? If a wise man can travel unimpeded, how could Prince Bigan be dismembered by King Zhou?" Zigong then said: "Master's teachings are too profound and grand, so no country can tolerate them. Excuse me, Master, can you lower your standards a little?" Confucius criticized him: "If you don't study hard, you lower yourself to cater to your needs. Your ambition is too lofty." The last one to answer was Confucius' favorite disciple Yan Hui, Yan Hui's words were most in line with the teacher's wishes. He said: "Although we are not accepted by the world, what does it matter? We have not cultivated the Master's way, which is our shame. We have cultivated the Master's way but it has not been accepted. UU Reading is a disgrace to those in power." After hearing this, Confucius smiled happily.
When Chen Chong said this, Guan Ning also laughed. He said solemnly to Chen Chong: "If you are poor, you can benefit yourself; if you are rich, you can help the world. But I am a failed Confucian scholar, and I don't believe that the teachings of saints can help both. The world, but I still want to be a gentleman, and do everything worthy of my own conscience. And Long Shoufang can only say that, which shows that he is a complete gentleman."
At this point, the two people's thoughts were in perfect harmony, and they both felt a sense of sympathy for each other. After that, the two talked for five whole days, as if they had forgotten all about the agreement to compete. It was not until the sixth day that the two of them talked. Yiyi separates. Before leaving, it snowed heavily, and the lake was covered with a thin layer of ice, like amber, while the surrounding area was white and silvery, just like his own innocent mood. Although Chen Chong could not see anything, he could still feel this discomfort. The dust-catching Bingqing asked Guan Ning one last time before getting on the bullock cart: "Why is it always difficult for a gentleman?"
Guan Ning said: "A person who is clever and insightful and close to the dead is a person who likes to discuss others. A person who is knowledgeable and eloquent is a person who endangers his own body and is a person who brings evil to others."
This is what Laozi presented to Confucius. The general idea is: A wise and profound person is very close to death because he likes to talk about others. A knowledgeable and eloquent person is often in danger because he likes to expose others' shortcomings.
Chen Chong laughed when he heard this. He nodded and said: "A gentleman is careful to be alone, a gentleman is poor, and a gentleman is constantly striving for self-improvement." After that, he bowed to Guan Ning and said their final farewell.
After Chen Chong's bullock cart slowly walked away, Guan Miao finally couldn't hold it anymore and asked Guan Ning: "Sir, who is higher and who is lower in this appointment?" Guan Ning smiled and replied: "Of course it is the dragon head. Ah! It is very difficult for a gentleman to be poor, but I am in the wilderness and he is in the temple, how can I wait and see? It is really a blessing for the people of the world to have such a wise man in the world."
