He wants to achieve great things and he
wants everyone to think that he is a great man.(好大喜功)
The second king of China's Tang Dynasty was
called Li Shimin.
He is one of the greatest kings in more
than 3,000 years of Chinese history.
History books record an evaluation of him
by a famous scholar of the Song Dynasty.
In Chinese history, there were only a few
great kings who ruled China very well.
The Xia Dynasty had a total of 16 kings,
but only one great king was recognised by future generations.
The Shang Dynasty saw a total of 28 kings,
of whom only three were recognised by future generations as great kings.
The Zhou dynasty saw a total of 36 kings,
of whom only three were recognised by future generations as great kings.
Of the 80 kings in the history of China's
three dynasties, which lasted more than 1,700 years, only 7 kings can be
considered great kings. This ratio is less than one tenth.
Judging from these statistics, we can know
that a great king who can lead the whole kingdom to prosperity in art, culture,
military power and economic development is really rare.
During the period when the Tang Dynasty
ruled China, there were a total of 20 kings. Among them, there are only three
great kings recognised by future generations.
Among these three kings, I think Li Shimin
is the most amazing.
He was a great military strategist. Under
his leadership, China returned from division to unity.
He made people's lives stable, and his
achievements were comparable to those of the founding kings of the Shang and
Zhou dynasties.
He was a great statesman. Under his
leadership, the lives of the people of Tang Dynasty became stable, and the
people's economy became rich because of the stability.
He made the Tang Dynasty economically and
culturally powerful, and his achievements were comparable to the two kings of
the Zhou Dynasty (Ji Song and Ji Zhao).
That is why we think he is the greatest
king in China from the Han Dynasty to the present day.
But is he so perfect?
We believe that he still has many
shortcomings that were considered by later generations of Confucian scholars.
The first point is that he is a person with
strong feelings of like and dislike, and his personality is not stable enough.
The second is that he promoted Buddhism and
caused the decline of Confucianism.
The third point is that he wants to make
great achievements and he wants everyone to think that he is a great person.
Therefore, during his reign, he was accustomed
to using military means to settle disputes with neighbouring countries.
In conclusion, Li Shimin was a very great
king.
Although he has shortcomings, who among us
does not have shortcomings?
Therefore, we cannot deny his great
contribution to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty because of his shortcomings.
This idiom is used to describe a person who
wants to achieve great things. He wants everyone to think that he is a great
man.
Dear friend, what inspirations or thoughts
do you have after listening to this story?
Would you ignore a person's merits because
of their shortcomings? Among the historical kings of all the countries in the
world that you know, which king do you think is the greatest?
I hope this story has given you some new
insights.
好大喜功(He wants to achieve great things and
he wants everyone to think that he is a great man.)
中國的唐王朝的第二任國王的名字叫做李世民。
他是長達3000多年的中國歷史上最偉大的國王之一。
歷史書上紀錄了一段宋代的一個著名學者對他的評價。
中國歷史上，把中國治理得非常好的偉大國王只有少數幾位。
夏王朝總共歷經了16個國王的統治，其中被後代所認可的偉大國王只有一個。
商王朝總共歷經了28個國王的統治，其中被後代所認可的偉大國王只有三個。
周王朝總共歷經了36個國王的統治，其中被後代所認可的偉大國王只有三個。
在中國那段總長達1700多年的三個朝代的歷史的80個國王中，只有7個國王可以算得上是偉大的國王。這個比例不到十分之一。
從這個統計數字來看，我們就可以知道一個偉大的，可以帶領整個王國在藝術文化與軍事力量與經濟發展上都非常興盛的國王實在太難得了。
唐王朝統治中國的期間內，總共歷經了20個國王。其中被後代所認可的偉大國王只有三個。
這三個國王中，我認為李世民是最了不起的。
他是一個偉大的軍事家，在他的帶領下，中國從分裂中回到統一。
他讓人民的生活變得安定，他的成就堪比商王朝與周王朝的開國國王。
他是一個偉大的政治家，在他的領導下，唐王朝的百姓生活變得安定，人民的經濟因為安定而變得富裕。
他讓唐王朝在經濟與文化實力上變得強大，他的成就堪比周王朝的(姬誦)與(姬釗)兩個國王。
因此我們認為他是中國從漢王朝到現在最偉大的國王。
但是他就是如此完美嗎?
我們認為他還是有很多被後代的儒家學者們所認為的缺點。
第一點是他是一個喜歡與厭惡的感情都比較強烈的人，他的個性不夠穩定。
第二點是他推崇佛教，他造成儒家思想的衰落。
第三點是他想要建立偉大的功績，他想要讓大家都認為他是一個了不起的人。
所以他在位的期間，他習慣用軍事手段解決與周圍鄰國的紛爭。
總和來說，李世民是一個非常偉大的國王。
雖然他有缺點，但是我們那一個人沒有缺點呢?
因此我們不能因為他的這些缺點而否定他帶領唐王朝走向興盛的偉大功勞。
這句成語被用來形容一個人想要建立偉大的功績，他想要讓大家都認為他是一個了不起的人。
親愛的朋友，你聽完這個故事有怎樣的啟發或有怎樣的想法呢。
你會因為一個人的缺點而忽視他的優點嗎?你所知道世界各國的歷史上的國王中，你認為那一個國王是你認為最偉大的呢?
我期待這故事能讓你產生一些新的收穫。
出處為新唐書-卷二-太宗本紀
https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E6%96%B0%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7002