Napoleon once said, "A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier." He asked each soldier to put a baton in his backpack and take it out when necessary to direct the battle. This is the same as the saying in Sun Tzu's Art of War, The Nine Changes, that "the king's order will be outside, and the king's fate will not be affected." However, this situation can only be used in special cases.
In real life, people from all walks of life are in place, and who can do what can do what they can do, have a clear responsibility arrangement, which is what we often call positioning. For example, if you position yourself as an excellent professional manager, you can't be busy testing products, packing and shipping in the warehouse all day long, but looking for the right person to do the job.
In the I Ching, the fifth word of Kun Gua, that is, the sixth five, is: "Huang Bao, Yuan Ji." It means wearing a yellow dress, Daji. The position of the Fifth Emperor in Qiangua is the position of the Ninth Five-Year Supreme Being, which is equivalent to the emperor. In The Kun Gua, the Sixth Five is also the image of the throne, but it is mainly assisted by the Nine Five, and can also be compared to the ministers below the emperor.
Therefore, the six fives of Kun Gua are generally positioned as the ones who assist the king. The yellow in this phrase is the color of the earth, the garment, which means the bottom and the skirt, the heel is the opposite, and the garment is the tunic, which represents the king, that is, the "upper garment, the lower garment" as said in the "Mao Biography". "Huang Bao, Yuan Ji" expresses a person who knows that he is suitable to assist the king, not to replace him, and is very lucky.
In other words, when a person does not want to do things that are not worthy of morality, but figures out his own positioning, what to do in this life, and what things can be done as soon as possible, he is more likely to succeed. Such a talent is a truly intelligent person, instead of daydreaming all day, doing things that are not practical, and end up with nothing, or even ruin.
1. The Duke of Zhou assisted King Cheng of Zhou
King Wu of Zhou died of illness shortly after the destruction of Shang, and passed the throne to the young crown prince Ji Shu, the King of Zhou Cheng. Although the Shang Dynasty was destroyed, there was still a stubborn force, coupled with the constant internal contradictions of the Zhou Dynasty, which could not be resolved by the young King Cheng. At this time, King Wu of Zhou's younger brother, that is, Zhou Gongdan, the uncle of King Cheng of Zhou, stepped forward.
This Zhou Gongdan is the Zhou Gong who we often say dream of Zhou Gong and Zhou Gong interprets dreams. In fact, Zhou Gong would not interpret dreams, he would only try his best to assist King Zhou Cheng and keep the country in danger. However, after the regency of the Duke of Zhou, rumors spread that he had ulterior motives and wanted to replace King Cheng as the new emperor, which put him on the cusp of the storm.
However, the Duke of Zhou was calm about all gossip, and took care of the Zhou Dynasty's government in an orderly manner according to the right way, helping King Zhou Cheng to resolve one crisis after another. For example, he quelled the rebellion of Wu Geng, a descendant of Yin Shang, suppressed the rebellion of Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai, and produced the Zhou Ceremony, which greatly consolidated the ruling position of the Zhou Dynasty.
Judging from the prestige and political talent of the Duke of Zhou, he wanted to replace King Zhou Cheng, after all, like the later Li Shimin, he killed the crown prince Li Jiancheng and seized the right to inherit the imperial throne, and after becoming emperor, he worked hard to govern and benefit the people of the world, and was praised by future generations. But Zhou Gong is a virtuous sage, he has no selfish desires, he has also corrected his mentality, clarified his own positioning, and will not mess around.
When King Wu of Zhou was seriously ill, he prayed to the gods to let him die on behalf of King Wu, which showed that his original intention was not for the throne, and later assisted King Zhou Cheng. He only knew that he had to assist the king and not forget his duty as a courtier. It is precisely because the Duke of Zhou is very clever and has a very accurate positioning, even if he has a low-hanging on the throne, he is at ease as an assistant to a dynasty and dedicates himself without reservation, and later his heroic name has been passed down through the ages.
Second, Zhuge Liang was obedient and humble
In the previous article "The more capable people are, the lower the posture", I mentioned the story of Zhuge Liang assisting Liu Chan. Before his death, Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang to be lonely, saying that if the empress dowager Liu Chan was not worthy of assistance, you would replace him as your king. Zhuge Liang is not confused, he is even smarter than everyone else, and he knows what his life position is.
Although Zhuge Liang was in a position of great power and had a higher position among his subjects than Liu Chan, and outsiders even regarded him as the number one person in Shu Han, he was still obedient and humble to the later lord Liu Chan, and did not have any shelf. Both internally and externally, he bowed down to death and died, and he was even more loyal to Liu Chan, and he had no idea of replacing him at all.
Even if it is framed from the outside world with ill intentions, as well as the bad words of some villains around Liu Chan, Zhuge Liang can resolve them one by one. This is not to say that Zhuge Liang used wisdom to cover up his own conspiracy, but that he had a bright heart, did not have any selfish intentions, naturally withstood all malicious attacks, and could be blessed with stars for a lifetime.
Is it difficult for Zhuge Liang to replace Liu Chan? It is not difficult at all, and it is easy to find an excuse (such as Liu Chan can't afford to help) to honor Liu Bei's last words. But he did not do so, but knew that he sat in the seat of the auxiliary king and did his best every day. Moreover, Zhuge Liang has self-knowledge, and his best position is not to sit on the throne, but the position of the sixth and fifth in the Kun Gua of the I Ching, as long as he does his part well, he can "yellow clothes, Yuan Ji".
3. Treason in Nanpu
Take a negative example. There is a story in the "Zuo Zhuan" that tells the story of the twelfth year of Lu Zhaogong in 531 BC, when a man named Nan Ku had a conflict with Ji Pingzi, the consul of the State of Lu, and Nan Ku rebelled. When preparing for the rebellion, Nan Kuo found someone to calculate a gua, that is, Kun Gua's sentence "Yellow clothes, Yuan Ji".
Nan Ku thought it was auspicious, but Zifu Huibo, who had studied the I Ching very well, believed that this auspiciousness was auspicious as long as he did not betray the current monarch and be loyal to the king; if Nan Kuo did not heed the advice and launched a mutiny, there would be no result. Nan Kuo did not pay attention to it, and later really failed and went into exile in the Country of Qi.
It is not that Zifu Huibo has superpowers and can predict the fate of Nan Kuo through calculation, but that he has read the meaning of "Huang Bao, Yuan Ji". A person like Nan Pu, just because his ancestors had contributed to the Ji clan, was uncomfortable when he was snubbed by the other party, and then launched a rebellion, he can only be regarded as a reckless man, not a smart person.
If Nan Kuo had no selfish intentions and set himself in the right position, then he would listen to the advice of others, and only the loyalty of the king could be done. However, Nan Kuo did not put himself in the right position, in addition to revenge, he also wanted to become a doctor after the success of the rebellion, it was a bit unjust, no wonder the people did not support him.
As someone else's courtier, it is not that Nan Kuo cannot have the ambition of being a child and a doctor, but that he does not know what to do in what position, and he is auspicious to himself, completely blinded by lust and anger, and the end is naturally not much better. Judging from the hindsight, Nanpu was not a smart man, and he did not position himself correctly, so he was defeated at the beginning.
From these three stories, we know that a smart person does not do things that are not related to their own positioning. And those who know that they do not have that ability, but who are eyeing the high position in front of them, are not smart people, but can only be regarded as a puppet blindfolded by lust, and generally there will be no good results.
Just like your position in the company is vice president, your main job is to assist the general manager to manage the company well, and to give it all in when you are needed, rather than thinking all day about how to remove others from power and replace yourself. When you know that your positioning is to assist and assist, corresponding to the six or five positions in the "I Ching" Kun Gua, do a good job of building, you can be very lucky.