The ancients said: Every man is not for himself, and the devil takes the hindmost. Many people understand it as the embodiment of human selfishness. I think the old saying means that if people don't think for themselves, it's hard to forgive.
But is this old saying really understood by people? You know, in ancient China, people advocated benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom, and paid attention to self-denial. In many well-known ancient sayings, we either talk about excellent moral character or dealing with people, in which God is the embodiment of fairness and justice in traditional culture. However, according to the current interpretation, this old saying is completely teaching the younger generation that it is selfish, and clearly shows that this is a natural truth and totally unreasonable.
In fact, the meaning of this old saying is not what we understand, or even completely contrary to our understanding. To understand the true meaning of this old saying, the key is to clarify the meaning of the word "Wei".
Now reading is for the four tones, and for yourself is for yourself. This understanding can be described as a big mistake, because the original "every man for himself, the devil takes the hindmost" is two words, meaning self-cultivation and self-cultivation. In this way, the meaning becomes: if a person does not cultivate himself in the world, then neither heaven nor earth can accept it.
The word difference subverts the meaning of the whole sentence, and the original explanation is more in line with the ancient people's pursuit of self-cultivation and governing the country. However, with the passage of time, this sentence was gradually misinterpreted. This phenomenon mainly reflects the dark side of human nature.
We know that selfishness is an indelible part of human nature, but people are used to covering up their ugly side with other things, trying to defend their misconduct and find legitimate reasons for their selfishness. This old saying can be said to be a perfect shield.
By misinterpreting the original meaning of the old saying, they force it to be explained with their own understanding, so that it can act as their own umbrella. When they are doing some selfish things, even if there is a little entanglement in their hearts, all they need is a misunderstood phrase "Every man takes the hindmost for himself" as a "panacea" to instantly calm their inner guilt.
No matter how to misinterpret the defense, this sentence will always be an excuse for selfish people. In fact, there is more than this old saying misunderstood by people in history. In addition, people often say that "no poison and no husband" is originally "no husband", which means that we should be generous and tolerant, not as cruel and vicious as people say today.
We should try our best to correctly understand this old saying, and understand the true meaning and purpose of this sentence handed down by the ancients, so as to better inherit and develop the excellent traditional culture of China.