Less Money Can Also Promise a Better Life

By Qian Xing

speeches and Manuscripts at New Asia College is a collection of works written by Mr. Ch’ien Mu (or Qian Mu, 1895-1990), a master of Chinese traditional culture, which depicted his experience of ten years’ school management in Hong Kong. Here is a paragraph from it about how to live a better life:

“Today I’ll talk about how to live well, and I’ll quote the words in the Analects of Confucius: The master said, ‘Aspire to truth, rely on virtues, base on benevolence, and divert in arts.’ To live a good life, the first principle is that we must be reasonable. If not, we cannot live a better life. The second is that we must cultivate and develop our personalities based on virtues. With bad conscience or poor temper, we won’t be able to lead a better life. The third is to ‘stick to benevolence.’ It is barely possible for a man to stay or live alone. We depend on our parents, brothers and sisters at home while we rely on our classmates, colleagues and friends in society. One should not be partial to oneself, but be open-minded. We should love everyone around us and stay close to people of virtue before we can live a better life. And the fourth is to ‘divert in arts’ which means we should live in a variety of ways and achieve multifarious accomplishments to make our days colorful.”

This was his New Year speech to teachers and students at New Asia College. Nowadays, when people talk about living a better life, they tend to talk about money, but are the rich leading a better life? Is it true that poor couples are necessarily pessimistic about everything? Mr. Ch’ien’s remarks seem to be simple, not an “important speech”—yet very practical. To live up to these four principles, we can live a better life even if we have a pitiful income.

(From Wenhui Book Review. Translation: Qing Run)

钱少也能过好日子

文/钱行

《新亚遗铎》是国学大师钱穆先生在香港办学十多年中积累的文集，其中有一段讲怎样过日子：

“今天我且谈谈如何过日子，我又要引《论语》上的话：‘子曰：志于道，据于德，依于仁，游于艺。’过日子，第一要懂得道理，不懂道理，是不能过好日子的。第二要根据德性修养，坏良心，坏脾气，也不能过好日子。第三是‘依于仁’，人不能离群独居，不能单独一人过日子。在家有父母兄弟姐妹，出外有同学同事朋友。一个人不能偏爱己身，应心胸开阔，‘泛爱众而亲仁’，而后才能过好日子。第四是‘游于艺’，过日子要多花样，要多才多艺，使日子过得多姿多彩。”

这是他在新亚书院一次师生新年联欢晚会上讲话的一段。今人谈到过好日子，往往好谈钱，但是有钱人过的日子都好吗？贫贱夫妻真的必然是百事哀吗？钱先生这段话好像是随口讲讲的，不算什么“重要讲话”。但浅显的道理很实用，做到这四条，即使收入低，也能过好日子。