Always give small favors, not long-term favors.

Open the supplement of History of the Tang Dynasty and read an extremely horrible story. The protagonist in this article is Li Mian, who once served as a captain in Kaifeng. The name of the story is Old Prisoners Report to Li Mian.

The whole article is very short, less than 300 words, but between the lines is a ridiculous world of people, which makes people feel chilling and sweaty.

The main idea of the first half of the story is that Li Mian saved a prisoner's life when he was an official. Many years later, Li Mian passed by and met the prisoner. The prisoner was very happy and discussed with his wife how to repay his kindness.

The wife said, "Can you give him a thousand silks?" The prisoner refused, stressing that it was a lifesaver.

The wife said, "How about two thousand horses?" The prisoner still thinks it's not enough.

So the wife said, "If that's the case, kill him."

The plot took a sharp turn for the worse, which was shocking. Mu Xin, a literary master at that time, read this article and was deeply touched. He said that this story is as profound as Shakespeare's psychological description of women, and even people like Stendhal and Dostoevsky will be surprised to read this article.

The story goes on. Put yourself in others' shoes. If you put yourself in a story and face your wife, how will you react? Is the righteous word go on the rampage on the spot, raise a slap and severely kill the biting woman, or hit it off with each other with a smile and prepare two arsenic axes?

In the story, the prisoner chose the second way. He deeply felt that this woman had a point and wanted to kill her. However, a servant of the prisoner's family pitied Li Mian and helped him escape. Finally, the prisoner and his wife were killed by the chivalrous man.

After reading this article, the first half is about people's hearts, and the second half is about legends. The human heart is naked and direct, but the legend is deliberately fabricated. If it really is in reality, the story will come to an abrupt end after Li Mian was killed. Oh, maybe it won't come to an abrupt end, maybe there will be a ceremony to celebrate the thief, and finally I don't owe this great favor, and my heart is very cool! Sleep peacefully! Come on, let's drink this cup of wine!

But in any case, there will be no such thing as a knight who hates the sky. Everyone is busy and life is not easy. Who will stand up for whom? Besides, it's bad luck for a white knife to go in and a red knife to go out, and the law does not allow it.

02

China people pay attention to listening to string songs and knowing elegance, and textbooks always pay attention to "please explain the author's original intention". As the so-called arty, we might as well explore the meaning of this story (maybe it doesn't exist at all).

Promote rice, retaliate against rice, and often do small charity and big charity.

Among the seven deadly sins of human nature, greed is the most important, which can be vividly explained in the story of promoting Mien's confrontation with Miqiu. A liter of rice can support a benefactor, but a bucket of rice can support an enemy.

If a person is in trouble, if you extend a hand, he will appreciate you, and often others will say hello to you. If you help each other from time to time and form a mindset and behavior habit repeatedly, you will be accused and complained by each other from time to time, and even turn against each other.

You are wronged, indignant, resentful and hate people like water. You are enthusiastic and empty-handed, and you provoked the ungrateful baiwenhang for no reason. But are you really that innocent?

There is no good or evil in human nature. The so-called good is cultivated, and evil also needs to be cultivated, and you are the one who has acted as the container of evil in a muddle. Because you don't grasp the communication between good people. Excessive intervention. You are responsible for interfering in other people's lives for no reason, and once you interfere, you can't completely retreat.

Everyone has his own safe distance in his heart. If you enter in good faith, you will inadvertently break the safe distance at your own risk. In the sense of communication, promoting Mien is the pleasure of love at first sight, and attacking Mienmity is a long-term boredom. No matter what the situation is, it is because of the distance.

The so-called gentleman is innocent and Huai Yu is guilty. In other words, it can also be said that a gentleman is innocent and guilty. The kindness here, especially the great kindness, the long kindness, the stale kindness and the unrequited kindness in this life, often makes the benefactor turn over and fall asleep.

It is wisdom to always give small favors, but it is a sin to give large favors for a long time. After all, there are not so many "Solin Niang" in this world, and there are not many Xue Xiangling who kindly report it, and Zhao Shouzhen who kindly reports Yongquan is even rarer.

03

The imbalance between conscience cost and economic cost is more likely to lead to crime.

Li Mian's kindness to the prisoner is saving his life. How can I repay you for saving my life?

In old novels, when you save women's lives, most of them will devote themselves to being slaves, while when you save men's lives, most of them will devote themselves to being kind to the public. Whether it is dedication or sacrifice, such economic cost is too huge, so huge that the benefactor wants to kill people.

For the old prisoner, I'm afraid ten thousand silks are not enough to repay Li Mian's kindness, but is he willing to spend all his money to repay the kindness he saved his life many years ago? Obviously, he doesn't want to.

He is used to a comfortable life. He is no longer a poor prisoner. He gave the handmaiden an identity and status, but with the arrival of the benefactor, he may lose all this.

It can be said that for him, Li Mian is a benefactor in public, but subconsciously he is a death warrant, a terrible past and an uncertain future. He knows that nothing can repay his kindness, and he is afraid that the lion will ask too much of himself. He just gritted his teeth and bent his heart, preferring to go against his conscience and act as a villain.

When the cost of conscience is out of balance with the economic cost, people will do evil. Because conscience is just an emotion, it will naturally fade after a long time, but wealth is life-threatening, so you must never give up.

Cost belongs to the category of economics, but it is a pervasive word. Crime cost, conscience cost, love cost, survival cost and death cost are all inseparable from cost. In essence, this shows that human beings exist in the form of economy.

If Li Mian knew something about economics, I'm afraid he wouldn't be in a hurry to see the released prisoners.

04

People who are hesitant on the surface often have ideas in their hearts.

In the past, when the woman suggested that "it is better to kill it", the author wrote "it is a prisoner's heart" in four simple words. Every time I read this, I seem to see a movie-like picture.

In the bean-like darkroom aura, smart women in the corner of their eyes tried frequently, so the prisoners frowned and shook their heads, sighing in their mouths, and their faces were heavy with kindness to save lives. And the woman's thunderous "it's better to kill" made him suddenly wake up. He immediately nodded and agreed, with a hint of casual pride in his mouth.

It is better to know a husband than a wife. In the story, the prisoner's wife is so sophisticated that she must have seen through her husband's heart. It's just that he, as the head of the family, has long been used to hypocrisy and profundity. Like Yue Buqun, he is full of kindness and morality, but his heart has rotted.

He kept saying that he wouldn't pay for it, and the next second he suddenly moved. This turning point of God is meaningful, ridiculous and absurd.

When will people hesitate? It is a time when the heart is dissatisfied with the judgment and thoughts in front of it. To this end, people even invented the way of divination or coin toss. And suddenly, when a satisfactory proposal shines into his heart like a beam of light, how can he not be moved?

So the prisoner was born early and was killed, so the prisoner's wife just acted as a psychological worm for a man. Of course, such bugs are evil. It started with greed and finally paid the price of life.

I like listening to Dan Tianfang's stories since I was a child. In books, I often hear the shadow of an old prisoner. For example, the founding emperor designed to kill heroes, villains betrayed their beliefs, slaughtered their feelings and so on. , all have the same reason.

The hero's work was highly praised by the Lord, which aroused the fear of the ruling and opposition parties. The emperor pretended to be partial, but in fact he had already made up his mind to kill him. The apprentice was grateful to the master, but after he became famous, he was uncontrollable, and he was simply deceived and bullied by the master, pretending to destroy his ancestors. Although this idea is extremely horrible, it is not difficult to understand from the perspective of human psychology.

It's just a dream of wealth, floating clouds on earth. In the end, fate will not forgive the wicked and evil people, nor will it mistreat good people like us. Reading novels and history books should also be regarded as listening to a warning speech with clear thinking and pure mind. The benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom of dealing with people still need to be spread.

Because no matter how things change, we should always be grateful and always lend a helping hand. This is our duty as long as it is suitable.