2025.11.10 - Build Yourself Like Building a New China
Ping Xia
Title: 2025.11.10 – Build Yourself Like Building New China
A timeless masterpiece by a famous Northern Song minister, only 42 characters, has enlightened countless people
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XvVYMN60UitL9q_ZiKH0aA
Today I reread Kou Zhun’s Inscription of Six Regrets. In just six lines, like six heavy bells, it strikes the heart:
“When officials act selfishly, they regret it when it’s too late.
The rich who are wasteful regret it in poverty.
Those who neglect learning regret it when the times change.
Seeing a problem but not studying it leads to regret when action is needed.
Drunken rants bring remorse when sober.
Restlessness brings illness and regret.”
In a few brief phrases it captures the regrets and remorse that haunt human life.
【TV Documentary】 “The Great Confucian Zhu Xi” (6 episodes)
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JZtggAqMp60dXdsI_sUBdw
Zhu Xi is the emblematic figure of Chinese civilization after Confucius. He worried deeply about the nation and its people, governing in adversity, teaching and writing amid criticism, and became the consummate synthesizer of Confucian thought. Zhu Xi’s ideas not only shaped China’s politics and education but also permeated everyday society, molding the traditional Chinese culture of family and state, moral ethics, and national spirit. Each 50‑minute episode of The Great Confucian Zhu Xi—“Family, State, and World,” “Source of Living Water,” “Compilation of the Great Way,” “Spring Breeze and Rain,” “A Heart of Loyalty,” “Songs of the Oars Across the Four Seas”—recreates his life while examining how his philosophy influences modern Chinese ways of thinking, moral education, and more, testifying to the enduring vitality and impact of Neo‑Confucianism.
Less Clothing, More Blessings?
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/mr_uvorjWsnCCnk4lJnm5w
Blessing is not “do whatever you want, be whatever you want.” It is a feeling of lightness and ease. No illness, no pressure—that alone is a great blessing. Money can ease life’s pressures, but it cannot eliminate them. If money could erase all stress, the richest people would be the happiest, and we wouldn’t need to argue about it; anyone can test whether the wealthy they know are truly happy. So the idea of “less clothing, more blessings” becomes clear. “Less clothing” does not mean going naked; it appears to mean buying fewer new clothes, which actually means reducing one’s desires. Fewer desires lead a person toward ease; more desires push a person toward unease. The logic is straightforward. When a person becomes at ease, that is true blessing.
Illness Is Mostly in the Mind
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/MO48cB1F-QBG2x2OFTve0w
If you treat an illness as if it doesn’t exist, it won’t have power over you. As the Taoist master Zhang Zhishun once said: “For a sick person, don’t treat the disease as a disease. Act as if it isn’t there, and it won’t be.” If you keep thinking about the illness, it will only worsen. Similarly, another Taoist elder taught: “Why can’t a sick person get better? Illness is a blend of spirit and matter, so first you must forget the illness. If you constantly think about it, the illness thinks about you—how can you heal?” I’ve heard many variations of this idea from scholars of Chinese classics, genetic scientists, and Western doctors alike. To those who don’t understand, it may sound like an “ostrich” attitude—“the disease is there objectively, so ignoring it makes it disappear?” Anyone familiar with Chinese medicine knows that “qingzhi” (emotions) profoundly affect physical health, and that adjusting mindset and cognition can effectively help regulate the body and disease.
Build Yourself Like Building New China
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/N1diLQgEfBdMeso1MfGZPQ
“Build yourself as if you were building New China!” Recently, this slogan has inspired many. Some netizens call it a “radical mindset,” while others liken it to “a beam of bright light” that illuminates a lost self. Economic independence, ideological emancipation, internal order, openness to the outside world, five‑year plans… The miraculous growth of New China offers equally important lessons for personal development. When we live as independent, clear‑sighted, resolute, expansive yet grounded individuals, we are doing the best job of “building ourselves.” Just as New China will continue toward greater strength, we too can become the people we aspire to be. As the primary constituents of a nation, national construction and self‑construction ultimately create a beautiful resonance.
Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on 拾一集 (Weekly Reflections). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.