There are many historical figures who cultivate themselves by diligence and thrift. They are not only diligent in national undertakings, but also very frugal in family life. Diligence and thrift are the traditional virtues of our people. The legendary ancient sages all did this. For example, Yao is particularly concerned about the people and thinks that others are hungry and cold because they don't do their job well, which is their own fault. But his own life is very frugal. He often wears coarse clothes, eats coarse rice and drinks wild vegetable soup. It is precisely because Yao is thrifty in his career and life that he won the love of the people and became a saint.
Su Dongpo, a famous writer and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, also used frugality as his living habit to improve his self-cultivation. He is firmly opposed to extravagance and waste in life. One year, he was demoted to Huangzhou and his salary was reduced, which brought a lot of inconvenience to his life. In order to tide over the difficulties, he not only dismissed all the servants around him, but also became more frugal. He made a complete and detailed expenditure plan for himself, concentrated all the income and money at hand, and then divided the money into twelve parts, one for each month, and each part was divided into thirty parts on average, and only one part was used every day. In this way, he "took the right way and used it in moderation" to tide over the difficulties. "A gentleman can overcome difficulties by frugality", as Su Dongpo did.
Luxury and waste are small enough to destroy a harmonious and happy family and large enough to destroy an extremely powerful country. Since ancient times, when many emperors started their businesses, they relied on their diligence and self-cultivation to get people's support, but later they gradually gave up their diligence and blindly pursued ease and enjoyment, which led to their own demise. In the Five Dynasties, Li, the emperor at the end of the Tang Dynasty, worked hard at first, defeated all his opponents and proclaimed himself emperor. But later, he was addicted to music and opera, and invited people to perform at the court every day. He performed very well and was rewarded with a lot of money. He also built music palaces and bands all day, resulting in the loss of gold, which eventually led to the rebellion of his subordinates. The actor made a fuss and died in a mutiny after three years in office. When Ouyang Xiu wrote Biography of Lingguan, he was deeply touched by this period of history and expounded the truth that "fatigue makes the country prosperous and leisure makes it die".
China has a strong sense of hardship, especially when the country is in turmoil and the people are in dire straits. Confucius said that "those who have no distant worries must have near worries" and Mencius said that "being born with worries and dying with joy" emphasized the importance of maintaining a sense of hardship from the perspective of individuals and countries respectively. Even in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wei Zhi advised the emperor to "be prepared for danger in times of peace, abstain from extravagance and save money" in order to achieve long-term stability.
Also, we should remind everyone that "frugality is easy, but frugality is difficult". It means that it is easy to change from frugality to luxury, and it is difficult to change from luxury to frugality. This is what Sima Guang quoted others to warn future generations. It emphasizes consciously keeping frugality and preventing extravagance and waste, which means self-encouragement and warning. Everyone wants a good life, which is understandable. However, it should not be too luxurious. Shang Zhou used a pair of ivory chopsticks, and his courtiers were about to run away, because when he saw Zhou Wang's greed, it would be unstoppable. Therefore, it is necessary to have self-discipline to adhere to thrift.
Now with the development of science and technology and the improvement of material living standards. People are gradually indifferent to the lessons of the ancients and are wanton in extravagance and waste. China has formed a common disease-"frugality and indifference". The little things around us illustrate the seriousness of this disease. In the bright classroom during the day, the lights should be on, the faucet in the bathroom should be on all the time, and the computer should be on standby. It is simply "I don't know what frugality tastes like." According to the statistics of Shanghai energy management department, according to the average household electricity consumption 1.5 watts, the electricity consumption of 4.8 million households in Shanghai increased by 2. The electricity load is about 50,000 kilowatts; The standby energy consumption of a computer is 30 watts. If Shanghai10.5 million government officials don't turn off the computer power after work, this alone will increase the electricity consumption by 4,500 kilowatts every day. If you add the standby waste of computers in enterprises and institutions, this figure is amazing. How much energy will be wasted if this is wasted. How much economic losses have been caused to the country. At this rate, even if our country is strong, I'm afraid it won't last long.
Throughout history, from the country to the family, we are all interested in thrift and forget luxury. Throughout the ages, most successful entrepreneurs have gone through the stage of hard struggle, so they are very diligent and thrifty. But for the guardians, the opposite is true. They have not experienced the hardships of starting a business, and are easy to covet luxury and enjoyment. The ultimate fate must be the decline of their career and the demise of the country. This is the truth revealed by thousands of years of history.
In today's extremely rich material, we should abstain from extravagance and thrift, not waste money and property, and know the virtues we advocate.
Looking at the countries and families of former sages, they became thrifty and extravagant. (Li Shangyin's Poems)