The Enlightenment of Li Xing’s Classical Chinese Writings to Us

"The Raccoon Dog" by Song Lian of the Ming Dynasty writes about a cat that is afraid of rats. The 狌 is a wild cat. Li 狌 means that it is not a domestic cat, but it looks like a tiger. The article said that there was a scholar in Nanguo who was suffering from rats. One time a rat fell into an urn. He hurriedly borrowed a raccoon dog that had been raised by Shu and took it home, asking it to enter the urn to catch it. The eyes are as red as paint, and the mane is ringing, which means it is a foreign object. It is walking along the rat and does not dare to push it in. The raccoon is very frightened and howls at it for a long time. With his own skill, the raccoon dog gnawed its foot, and the raccoon dog hurled it out. "No matter how big the rat is, it is not as good as the cat. Moreover, the raccoon dog is a big person, so it is "terrible" to it. When it bites its foot, it has to jump out of the pottery urn. . The rat couldn't jump out after falling in, which shows that it is neither as big as the raccoon dog nor as strong as the raccoon dog.

Although he told the story that "the warriors enjoyed great wealth in the world, and those who encountered thieves would be ruthless", it was also disproven by examples in life. Proof, as the saying goes, "die in peace".

The revelation is simple and clear: indulging in comfort leads to decline.