In the fifth year of Song Renzong (1045), Fan Zhongyan was demoted to Dengzhou for advocating reform. After being ruthlessly hit by politics, he did not become passive and decadent, went with the flow, or even gave up his ambition and colluded with evil forces. Instead, it left the eternal swan song of "worrying about the world first, and enjoying the world later".
Three disciples of Socrates, the master of ancient Greek philosophy, once asked their teacher how to find the ideal partner. Socrates did not answer directly, but let them walk on the ridge of the wheat field, only allowed to move forward, and only gave them a chance to pick the best and biggest ears of wheat.
The first disciple took a few steps and saw a big and beautiful ear of wheat. He took it off happily. But when he walked on, he found that there were many bigger ones in front of him, so he had to finish the whole journey with regret.
The second disciple learned his lesson, and whenever he wanted to pick it, he always reminded himself that there was something better to come. As he approached the finish line, he found that all the opportunities had been missed. The third disciple learned the lesson of the first two disciples. When he reaches one third, he is divided into three categories: big, medium and small. When he walked a third, he verified whether it was correct. When he reached the last third, he chose a beautiful ear of wheat belonging to a large category. Although this is not necessarily the biggest and most beautiful one, he walked the whole journey with satisfaction.