Be a Person with Independent Opinions

Here's a classic little story, supposedly told by Mr. Zhou Shuren (Lu Xun). A father and son are entering the city on a donkey. Halfway there, someone laughs at them, calling them foolish for having a donkey and not riding it. The father tells his son to ride, but shortly after, someone else says, 'What an ungrateful son, letting his father walk.' The father quickly tells his son to get off, and he himself rides on the donkey's back. Again, someone says, 'What a selfish father, risking his son's life.' The father quickly tells his son to get back on, and someone says, 'Two people riding on a donkey's back, afraid it will crush them.' The father and son quickly jump off, tie up the donkey's legs with ropes, and carry it on their shoulders. As they pass a bridge, the donkey, uncomfortable, struggled free and fell into the river, drowning.

Through this little story, I learned a vital lesson: one must be a person with independent judgment and the ability to distinguish right from wrong, so as not to be swayed by others' opinions. We must not live in the opinions of others; we must walk with our own feet and think with our own minds. People have their limits, and no one is perfect. Choose what is right, reject what is wrong, and uphold our own beliefs, and we will reach our highest potential.

As the old saying goes, 'Just as people in the ancient world willingly 'bent their necks to pay five bushels of rice,' Tao Yuanming chose 'to pick chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge and leisurely view the south mountain' - a life of peaceful seclusion; in the era when 'all men love peonies, since Li Tang,' Zhou Dunyi chose 'I alone love the lotus that emerges from the mud without being stained, clear and cool, and not charming' - a life of high purity, resolutely refusing to be assimilated by the world. These all point to the fact that we must learn to walk our own path.

This is a very classic story, worth our reflection. As Mr. Zhou Shuren (Lu Xun) said, 'One must be a person with independent judgment and the ability to distinguish right from wrong, so as not to be swayed by others' opinions.'

In the ancient era when people willingly 'bent their necks to pay five bushels of rice,' Tao Yuanming chose 'to pick chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge and leisurely view the south mountain' - a life of peaceful seclusion; in the era when 'all men love peonies, since Li Tang,' Zhou Dunyi chose 'I alone love the lotus that emerges from the mud without being stained, clear and cool, and not charming' - a life of high purity, resolutely refusing to be assimilated by the world.

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