Happiness ⁽⁶⁾

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, I rode a bicycle, wearing a pair of cloth shoes, to visit relatives. My outfit is nothing unusual in Beijing, but in my rural hometown it is dirt-common. Along the way, there was not a single…

I ask almost nothing of material life. I have never quite understood those in this world who need material possessions to gain dignity and security, just as they do not understand me. We cannot live in this world without a material basis, but apart from…

In 1998, I came to Beijing for the first time to attend university, carrying a worn-out denim bag stuffed with a change of clothes. Standing on Beijing's streets, I was completely disoriented, unable to tell east from west, and marveled at the city's grand buildings.

The greatest burdens of worldly life are vanity and lies. Living in such an environment, the waste of time is astonishing, and the number of trivial words spoken each day is incalculable. So if a person can put up a wall between themselves and the…

On the third day after my mother died, an employee in my company whom I had valued—a student returned from studying in Germany—conspired with one of my suppliers to steal all of my company's core technical secrets, even secretly corrupting all of my company's designers…

Of power, wealth and worldly splendor, he who keeps aloof is pure; he who dwells among them yet is unstained is purest of all. Of cunning, trickery and scheming, he who knows them not is lofty; he who knows them yet does not use them…