Title: Thoughts on Reading Feng Youlan

Thoughts on Reading Feng Youlan's Life Realm

People should live a high "realm"

-Read Feng Youlan's "Life Realm"

I once read a story about an official named Yang Mi who refused a bribe from his subordinates on a dark night. The subordinate is very surprised: no one knows about this matter. Who will you show it to? I saw Yang Mi say this frankly: Heaven knows the earth, you know me, how can you say that no one knows? Between heaven and earth, man is the biggest. This "greatness" is not a personal physical greatness, but a shocking and shameful thing from the deep heart. This is a state of mind that although the world is "turbid", it can still consciously understand everything and be indifferent to fame and fortune; This is a kind of conduct that can consciously maintain integrity after getting rid of secular supervision and constraints. Yang Mi's behavior fully embodies this "greatness". He lived out his own realm of life and became a leader among feudal literati.

In The Realm of Life, Mr. Feng Youlan defined the "realm" as the meaning when individuals do things. This meaning does not come from the coercion of others, nor from the performance of others. It is a conscious behavior that truly reflects one's conscience from the heart. This kind of conscious behavior can make an ordinary person, even the "unqualified" person in reality, stand out and become an excellent person. Xu Sanduo in the novel Soldier Assault is such an example. From him, we can't see any shadow of his success. He is not as clever as a fellow villager, as flexible as a monitor and as resolute as a company commander. He only recognizes one principle: a person's life can't be wasted, but he should do a few meaningful things. What he can't do, as long as he thinks it is meaningful, he will study hard; What he knows, as long as he thinks it is meaningful, will be carefully preserved, even if it is laughed at by others. Xu Sanduo's life scene in Class 5, Red Three Company: The other four soldiers, writers, playing cards and fortune telling, have their own ways to spend their days, and they have no taste of "soldiers" at all. However, Xu Sanduo does his own exercises, cleans his own room, and plays goose steps, in strict accordance with the training requirements of XinBingLian, once for several years! Especially in the "road construction" section, he painted white lines, picked stones of different colors, paved stones and planted flowers and plants, methodically and practically. Those veterans played cards in the barracks, complaining about his troubles and even expecting his failure! Xu Sanduo's road was paved really hard. With cynicism, it was paved step by step until it was successful. With his perseverance and seriousness, he completed an unfinished work of strengthening the row, and the cost was only five yuan for flowers! Who says "realm" is far from ordinary people? Who says saints and philosophers are people who do great things? What Xu Sanduo did was ordinary, but he paved the way for the meaning of life. He paved his own realm, realized the leap from ordinary to great, and became a philosopher among mortals and a saint in his heart!

Mr. Feng Youlan divides the realm of life into four kinds: natural realm, utilitarian realm, moral realm and heaven and earth realm. People in nature do things entirely out of "instinct", similar to primitive people's "work at sunrise and rest at sunset". As for why they work in the fields, they don't know. People in the utilitarian realm do things on the word "profit". The starting point of "I am for everyone and everyone is for me" is for others, but the purpose is for myself, which is beneficial to society and is a positive utilitarian behavior; It is a negative utilitarian behavior to harm others and yourself for your own sake, which is harmful to society; As for harming others and not benefiting themselves, it is "stealing chickens is not a counter-erosion", and harming others and benefiting themselves is a stupid utilitarian behavior. Different from the utilitarian realm, people in the moral realm use another word "righteousness" to do things. "Gentleman's righteousness, villain's benefit" and "sacrifice one's life for justice, kill one's life" are the best interpretations of "justice". Fan Zhongyan, "Worry about the world first, and then enjoy the world", Wen Tianxiang, "Who has never died in life since ancient times, and the heart of keeping Dan is a history book", and Lin Zexu, "If a country lives or dies, why should every cloud has a silver lining avoid it", and those who pay silently, their greatness is their share of sacrifice to the country, the collective and others, and their responsibility and conscience that they do not ask for anything in return. The development and progress of China society for thousands of years is precisely because of their persistent pursuit and silent sacrifice. They are the unyielding backbone of China's traditional cultural spirit! People in the realm of heaven and earth have broader horizons and more loving behaviors. Bethune, a Canadian doctor in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's time, came to China not far from Wan Li. That's where the operating table is. He died in China. His love transcends national boundaries, focusing on unfortunate human beings and becoming a bigger "person" between heaven and earth! The international donation in the Indian Ocean tsunami and the international rescue in the Wenchuan earthquake also show the love of people with heaven and earth in all countries, the respect for foreign life, the sympathy for similar nature and the yearning for a higher realm of life!