killing with kindness

killing with kindness

In Chinese, the Pinyin is y ǐ R ó UK è g ā ng, which means to use the soft to restrain the strong. From "General Court".

The origin of Idioms

"The general court" written by Zhuge Liang in Shu of the Three Kingdoms states: "a good general can't break his rigidity, and his softness can't be rolled up. Therefore, the weak can control the strong, and the soft can control the strong."

Idiom usage

If he wants to fight for his life and put all his eggs in one basket, we should be patient, try our best to avoid confrontation with the enemy and fight hard in the enemy's rear. Li Lianqing's the wind and cloud is urgent.

Idioms and allusions

Tao Te Ching: the world is not weaker than water, and the strong can not win, so it is not easy. The weak is better than the strong, and the soft is better than the hard. Therefore, the sage said, "the dirt of the recipient country is the master of the country; the recipient country is ominous and is the king of the world. It means that nothing in the world is weaker than water, while nothing can be better than water in overcoming difficulties. Weak is better than strong, soft is better than hard, no one in the world does not know, but no one can implement. Therefore, the sage of Tao said, "only when you bear the humiliation of the whole country can you become the monarch of the country, bear the disasters of the whole country, and become the king of the world." 1. There is no easy: easy, replace, replace. Nothing can replace it. 2. The dirt of the recipient country: dirt, humiliation. It means to bear the humiliation of the whole country. 3. The recipient country is ominous: ominous, disaster, disaster. It means to bear the disaster of the whole country. Positive words are like negative words. This chapter takes water as an example to illustrate that the weak can win the strong and the soft can win the hard. This chapter can be read in connection with the contents of the eight chapters. Laozi's example of water is common in people's daily life. Water is the weakest, but weak water can penetrate hard rock. Water is weak on the surface, but there is a force that no force can resist. This clearly shows that what Laozi said about weakness and weakness is not what people usually mean by weakness. Here, because the water nature tends to be inferior, so Lao Tzu's concept of inferiority and humiliation is advocated. In fact, he can maintain a superior position and has strong strength. There is a sentence at the end of this chapter: "right words are opposite", which summarizes Laozi's dialectics thought, and its meaning is very profound and rich. The content of this chapter mainly includes two points: one is the praise of water; the other is "right words are opposite". Zhang songru said: "in the world, there are many cases where the weak can win the strong and the soft can conquer the strong. Lao Tzu, who lived at the end of the spring and Autumn period, experienced many great changes in this era and saw the evolution of the Zhou Dynasty from prosperity to decline, which had a great influence on his thoughts. At the same time, with the wide use of ironware in this period, people's understanding of natural phenomena was constantly developing in the struggle to conquer nature. " "In a further era, the characteristics of water have not been understood by people. It is very different to retain the legend of Yu's flood control in Shanhaijing from Laozi's understanding of the flexibility and function of water." Laozi believes that although water seems to be weak and humble on the surface, it can penetrate mountains and rocks, submerge fields and destroy homes, and no strong thing can stop it from conquering it. Therefore, Laozi firmly believes that weak things can surpass strong things. Here, what Laozi said about softness is that softness brings hardness, weakness brings strength, and tenacity is incomparable. Therefore, we should deeply understand Lao Tzu's idea that he is as weak as water, not just literally. Therefore, Lao Tzu believes that the sage of Tao is like water, willing to be in a humble and weak position, and "rule by doing nothing" to the country and people. Let's say "the truth is the opposite". Lao Tzu's saying that "right words are contrary" is a high generalization of Lao Tzu's opposite and complementary remarks in the book, such as: "great success is like lack", "great surplus is like Chong", "great straightforwardness is like submission", "great cleverness is like clumsiness", "great debate is like naivety", "understanding the way is like ignorance", "advancing the way is like retreat", "barbarism is like category", "Shangde is like Valley", "Dabai is like disgrace", "Guangde is like deficiency", "Jiande is like deficiency" Great sound is hard to hear. "Generous, true, but no". Sun Zhongyuan said: "even the sentence structure here is similar They are originally different, mutually exclusive and antagonistic, but under certain conditions and in a certain sense, the concept of a certain thing is unified with the other party. They contain, integrate, permeate, and are identical with each other. In this way, in the same judgment, it contains the flow and transformation of opposite concepts, which reflects the flexibility of concepts. This flexibility is conditional, and Laozi's words are meaningful only under certain conditions. "