The three armed forces can win the handsome, but ordinary people can't win the ambition. What does that mean?

It means that an army commander may change, but the ambition of an ordinary person cannot be changed.

Source "The Analects of Confucius Zi Han": "The three armed forces can win the handsome, but the ordinary man can't win the ambition."

To annotate ...

1. Three services: the general term for the army. Ancient 12500 people were one army.

2. Men:: Ancient refers to men among civilians; Generally refers to the common people. The real man

3. take: change, change.

4. Ambition: Ambition.

Confucius said: "The commander-in-chief of the three armed forces can change, but the ambition of a person (ambitious person) cannot change."

Shallow understanding

Confucius tells people here that human dignity lies not in the size of official position and status, but in whether one's ambition is firm or not. No matter how powerful a person is, if his ambition is not firm, he will not get honor if he changes with the situation; Even ordinary people are noble if they are poor and indomitable.

He warned people that once they set their aspirations, they should persevere, overcome all difficulties and unswervingly realize them. Perseverance is a reliable guarantee to realize one's ambition.

Extended information: Every man can't get rid of ambition and allusions.

Su Wu is the son of Su Jian, the county magistrate of Dai Jun. In his early years, he took the shadow of his father as his lang, and in the first year of Tianhan, he worshipped the corps commander. At that time, the relationship between the Han Dynasty and Xiongnu was good and bad. In 100 BC, the Xiongnu new Khan ascended the throne, honoring the great man as his father-in-law. As a gesture of friendship, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Su Wu to Xiongnu with more than 100 people, escorted the Xiongnu emissary detained by the Han Dynasty back to China, and gave Khan a generous gift to show his gratitude.

Unexpectedly, when he finished his mission in Su Wu and was ready to return to China, civil strife broke out in Shang Xiongnu, and Su Wu and his party were implicated, detained and asked to betray the Han Dynasty and submit to Khan. At first, Khan sent Wei Law to lobby Su Wu, promising high officials and generous salaries, but Su Wu sternly refused. Seeing that persuasion was useless, the Huns decided to use torture. It was a severe winter and it snowed heavily.

Khan ordered Su Wu to be locked in an open crypt, without water and food, hoping that this would force Su Wu to change his mind. Over time, Su Wu was tortured in the cellar. Eat a handful of snow when you are thirsty; When you are hungry, chew the sheepskin coat you are wearing; When it gets cold, it shrinks in the corner. After many days, Su Wu, who was dying in front of Khan, showed no sign of yielding and had to let him go.

Khan saw that there was no hope of persuading Su Wu to surrender, but he respected his integrity. He didn't have the heart to kill him and didn't want him to return to Han, so he decided to exile Su Wu to the far north and let him go to shepherd sheep. Before he left, Khan summoned Su Wu and said, "Since you don't surrender, I will let you herd the sheep. When these sheep give birth to lambs, I will let you go back to your big man. "

Su Wu was exiled to the lonely shore of Lake Baikal, where he could not escape alone. Su Wu was accompanied only by envoys representing the Han Dynasty and a small flock of sheep. He found that these sheep were all rams. Day after day, year after year, all the oxtail ornaments hung on the envoys fell off, and Su Wu's hair and beard turned gray.

For more than ten years, Hun Khan, who ordered him to be imprisoned, died, so did Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and his son Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty acceded to the throne. In 85 BC, the Huns were in civil strife, and Khan was unable to fight the Han Dynasty again, and sent messengers to demand reconciliation. Emperor Hanzhao sent messengers to the Huns, demanding the release of Su Wu, Chang Hui and others. Xiongnu lied to the messenger that Su Wu was dead.