Is it true that you can t have it both ways?

The idiom "You can't have both fish and bear's paws" comes from Mencius's "Fish I Want Chapter".

Fish, I want, bear's paw, I also want; You can't have both, and you can't have both, and those who give up the fish and take the bear's paw are also. Life, also what I want, righteousness, also what I want; You can't have both, and those who sacrifice their lives to take righteousness are also. Mencius used an analogy with concrete things that people are familiar with in their lives:

The fish is what I want, and the bear's paw is also what I want, and in the case that the two cannot be obtained at the same time, I would rather give up the fish and have the bear's paw; Life is what I cherish, and righteousness is also what I cherish, and in the case that the two cannot be obtained at the same time, I would rather give up my life in favor of righteousness. Here, Mencius compares life to a fish and righteousness to a bear's paw, arguing that righteousness is more precious than life just as a bear's paw is more precious than a fish.

This article is an excerpt from Mencius Gaozi I. The main content of "The Confession" is to clarify the "theory of goodness", that is, human nature is born with the seed of goodness, the so-called "compassion, everyone has it; Everyone has a heart of shame; Respectful heart is shared by everyone; Everyone has the heart of right and wrong". This kind of good nature is the "original heart" of man.

"Originality" should not be underestimated, because they are the germination forms of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom: "The heart of compassion is the end of benevolence; The heart of shame is also the end of righteousness; The heart of resignation (meaning close to "respectful") is also the end of courtesy; The heart of right and wrong, the end of righteousness. One should seek one's own mind, develop it in the direction of one's own mind, and carry it forward in order to become a morally perfect person.

Therefore, in the full text of "Under the Confession", this article is about everyone having a "heart", and no matter what the situation, people should keep their "heart". As long as the "heart" is there, even at the moment of life and death, people can withstand the test; And if we lose our "heart," we will do things that are detrimental to our personality.

1.Because if you want to get a bear's paw, you have to go to the mountains to fight, and if you want to get a fish, you have to go to the water to catch them, and you can't get both at the same time, so you can't have both the bear's paw and the fish.

2.The original meaning of this sentence is not to say that the two must not have both, but to emphasize how we should make trade-offs when we can't have both.

Mencius's original words were: "I want the fish, and the bear's paw is also what I want, and you can't have both. ”

He used the fish and the bear's paw as a metaphor for the trade-off between "life" and "righteousness": "Life, what I want, righteousness, and what I want, you can't have both, sacrifice life and seek righteousness." ”

Therefore, it should be said that it is possible to have both fish and bear's paws without conflict.

Well!! This is indeed the meaning of this sentence. But you guys don't seem to have read the questioner's meaning.

In my opinion, the question should be, "Why can't you get both fish and bear's paws at the same time?" What do they have to do with each other? ”。

Bears are delicious fish. The way it fishes is by slapping the fish in the river with the palm of its hand so that it is knocked to the shore. Imagine a bear that just catches a fish and a hunter appears.

At this point he has two options:1Drive the bears away to get the fish.

2.Attack and hunt a bear while it eats fish. Bears are natural, and hunting them is not an easy task.

To get a bear's paw, you have to use a fish as bait. To get the fish, you have to drive away the bear (lose the bear's paw), so you can't have both the fish and the bear's paw. Uttering "Mencius":

Fish, I want, bear's paw, also I want, can not have both, give up the fish and take the bear's paw. Life, what I want, righteousness, also what I want. You can't have both, and those who sacrifice their lives to take righteousness are also.

Meaning: both fish and bear's paw are delicious, I want both, but it is impossible to get both, then I will take the bear's paw, life and righteousness are what I want, but if I can't have both, I would rather lose my life for the sake of righteousness. Mencius's words are admonishing people to value righteousness and prefer to sacrifice their lives for righteousness, but people often forget this original meaning, and they relish that they cannot have both fish and bear's paws.

Although, this is also a truth. People can't be too greedy, things can't let a person take advantage of everything, there will be gains and losses, we should learn to give up the secondary and take care of the important.

Fish and bear paws can not have both, with bear paws there will be no fish, but things are precious, in contrast, bear paws are expensive, so you should give up the fish and take the bear paws.

Love is the temple of mankind, the desire for love in life, and the destination of life. A living person, without love in life, life becomes meaningless.

Love is the crystallization of love, and love is the fate of past and present lives. For the sake of love, people may give up their lives and fall in love with each other in different worlds.

In the face of love, life trajectory can be flexible. People can have love because of their careers, and they can also build careers because of love.

Love is sacred and full of responsibility, but human love is a social responsibility that goes beyond love. When you come to the world, you have to take responsibility for your parents, family and social obligations that gave birth to you, and have love in real life to find a complete life. Young people do have a dilemma.

If there is a happy outcome for love, you will have to face giving up your career for many years, and you will be unwilling to give up your career. It seems that what Old Master Meng said about the incompatibility of fish and bear's paws has been verified again.

However, from the postscript, I learned that the person who raised this question is still young, and since he is faced with a dilemma in the choice between love and career, he still has to rely on his personal knowledge and ability to analyze things, compare the two, weigh them repeatedly, and choose which is more important. Do not be emotional, not calm, not calm, and make quick troubles that make you regret for life.

The poem written by the Hungarian poet Pei Duofei is estimated to have been read by the subject, namely: life is precious, and love is more valuable. In this, the poet puts love and human life in the same important position, if young people really find someone who really loves you, don't give up easily.

As for the career, you can continue to work hard. Connections can also be re-established. As long as individuals do not give up their work efforts, it is not impossible to find a breakthrough in a new career in Anhui's hometown and the Yangtze River Delta.

Life in the world is decades of time. And youth is even shorter, fleeting, and never returned. It's easy to find a job, but it's hard to find a soulmate.

Therefore, with personal ingenuity and several years of practical work experience, it is not impossible for young people to create a brilliant career as long as their wife supports you after marriage.

Don't hesitate, as long as love comes to a stage where the flowers bloom and blossom, give up work for the time being, solve personal life events, and then think about others.

Life is like this, you have to accept what you choose, no matter how much you regret it later, you can only carry your regrets all the way forward.

The above is only the opinion of passers-by on this issue, as a party, you still need to make a decision based on your specific circumstances.

The fish and the bear's paw cannot be both, this is just a borrowed example of Mencius's explanation of the righteous gods' reasoning, not the fish and the bear's paw.

They really can't coexist.

Mencius said: Fish, I can do what I want; The bear's paw is also what I want, and I can't have both, and the one who gives up the fish and takes the bear's paw. Life, also what I want; Righteousness is also what I want, and I can't have both, and those who sacrifice their lives to take righteousness are also

Fish is a common food, but bear's paw is not available to everyone.

If you can only choose one of the two, you will naturally choose the more precious bear's paw.

In this way, Mencius explained that benevolence and righteousness are more valuable than life, and in order to preserve benevolence, one can give up life in the type (sacrifice life to take righteousness).

If you like, you can change it to something else:

Chicken and lobster can't have both

You can't have both duck and bird's nest, and you can't have both white paper and TV.

It's just an example used in a parable, and it doesn't matter what kind of example you use if you understand the meaning.