Nowadays, many rich people in China send their children to the UK to attend aristocratic schools, hoping that they can become nobles after graduation, but when they find that even the best schools in the UK, Eton School students sleep in hard beds, eat simple food, and receive ve

□ Wei Jie

Nowadays, many rich people in China send their children to the UK to attend aristocratic schools, hoping that they can become nobles after graduation, but when they find that even the best school in the UK, students of Eton College , sleep on hard beds, eat simple food, and receive very rigorous training every day, even harder than students in civilian schools, they can't figure out how these ascetic life is related to the aristocratic spirit. In fact, the aristocratic spirit advocated by the West is not the nouveau riche spirit. It is a spiritual opposition from different civilians, and it does not mean being pampered and living a leisurely and luxurious life. It is a spirit with a series of values ​​such as honor, responsibility, courage, and self-discipline as the core.

Rich and noble are not the same thing

The world-famous aristocratic school implements such strict and arduous militarized training, with the goal of cultivating students' sense of cooperation and self-discipline. A true noble must be self-controlled and must have strong spiritual power, and this spiritual power needs to be cultivated from an early age.

Eton College has indeed cultivated many outstanding figures in this way, such as the Wellington General who defeated Napoleon, who was a top student in Eton College. When Wellington was in the final battle with Napoleon, he left a famous saying. At that time, he braved artillery fire to observe the enemy situation on the front line. The staff advised him to withdraw as soon as possible because the front line was too dangerous, but Wellington just stopped moving. The staff had to ask him, what will you say if you die? Wellington said without looking back: "Tell them, my last words are standing here like me."

What most Chinese people now understand now are living in villas, buying Bentleys, playing golf, spending money like soil, and spending wine and wine. They call people and leave. In fact, this is not the aristocratic spirit, it is the nouveau riche spirit. In the consciousness of most Chinese people, wealth and honor are the same, and there is no difference. But in fact, these are two different things. Rich is material, and precious is spiritual.

self-control self-control, serve the country

aristocratic spirit, first of all, means that people must restrain themselves, contribute themselves, and serve the country. The British Prince William and Prince Harry are of course nobles. The British royal family sent them to the Army Officer's School to study. After graduation, Prince Harry was also sent to the Afghanistan frontline to be a machine gunner. The British royal family knew the noble status of Prince Harry and the dangers on the front line, but they believed that the country dedicated itself and took risks was the job of the noble.

UK WWII There was a photo circulating very widely. At that time, the British King Edward visited the slum in London for inspection. He stood at the door of a tilted house and said to the poor old lady inside: "Can I come in?" This reflects a kind of respect for the lower class. The real nobles know how to respect others.

11793 On January 21, 2017, in the Plaza Concorde in Paris, a prisoner who was about to be executed accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot when he was on the guillotine. She immediately subconsciously said: "I'm sorry, sir." At this moment, her husband Louis XVI , facing the murderous executioner, left such a frank and noble last words: "I die innocence. I forgive my enemies, and I hope my blood can calm God's wrath." A few minutes later, Louis XVI and the Queen were different from each other. Two centuries later, the then French president Mitterrand said sincerely at the celebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution: "Louis XVI is a good man, and it is a tragedy for him to be executed..."

On October 28, 1910, an 83-year-old man decided to share all his property with the poor in order to save his soul that had suffered all his life. Then he ran away from his vast manor and took Nekhludov's -style confession, and eventually died like a homeless man... He is the great Russian writer Tolstoy.Austrian Writer Zweig When evaluating Tolstoy, he sighed: "This last fate without glory and humility does not harm his greatness... If he had not endured suffering for us, then Leo Tolstoy would not belong to all mankind as today." Although these protagonists have different destinies, they all have a common identity: aristocrats.

In the West, until the 18th century, aristocrats were still the mainstream society and played an important role. To this day, Britain still retained the titles and titles of the nobles. When the Western aristocratic society turned into a civilian society, the bourgeoisie did not set off a wave of denying and criticizing aristocratic culture. On the contrary, they sent their children to aristocratic schools to study, buying aristocratic patterns and badges, and buying aristocratic titles, hoping to inherit the aristocratic mantle in all aspects.

Nobles represent dignity and character

The famous journalist Chu Anping said in the "British Field Collection" that the reason why the British aristocratic system has been able to continue to this day is because it has been recognized by everyone. The British people generally believe that the aristocratic spirit represents a kind of dignity and a superb character.

After the West entered civil society, the tradition of opening up between the nobles was still preserved in high-level politics. During the American Civil War, the Southern Army was about to face failure. Some of the officers proposed to break it into pieces and disperse it to the homes of ordinary people, and enter the mountainous areas to fight guerrilla war . But General Robert Li, the Supreme Commander of the Southern Army, disagreed. He said: "War is the profession of soldiers. If we do this, it is equivalent to placing the responsibility of war on innocent people. Although I am not an excellent soldier, I will never agree to do so. If I can exchange my life for peace for the people in the south, I would rather be executed as a war criminal."

His opponent is the well-known Grant, and the President of Lincoln also showed a generous and noble demeanor. Originally, he should have dealt with Robert Li in accordance with military law, but he believed that hatred between the north and the south should be resolved rather than to be broken, so he told General Li that you are at retirement age, so you should retire and return home. So General Li retired gloriously in this way, returned to his manor and wrote his memoir.

The noble spirit is also low-key. Rockefeller Empire, the little Rockefeller , lived a poor life when he was in college, pressed his pants, sewed buttons by himself, did not smoke, drink, or went to the theater to watch movies. Like his father, he kept every expense in a small notebook. These people seem to be very economical, but they are not stingy. They are very generous when they donate to the society. For example, the Bill Gates , which we are all very familiar with, later donated all the property under his name to society. It is both economical and generous, which is also a very desirable part of the noble spirit.

The spirit of

is generous from one perspective, and interpreted from another perspective, it can also be said to be a kind of responsibility and a sense of social responsibility. There is an unwritten rule in the Western navigation industry. When a ship is about to sink in danger, the captain will definitely be the last to leave. This is a spirit of responsibility that continues from the aristocratic spirit. In the movie "Titanic", when the ship was about to sink, the captain walked into the captain's room and chose to live and die with the ship. When the ship began to sink, the captain asked the small band on the ship to play on the deck to calm everyone's emotions. After the performance was finished, the chief musician bowed to everyone and the musicians began to leave. The ship was very chaotic, and the big ship was about to sink. When the chief musician saw everyone walking away, he returned to his original position and started a new song. The musician who had already walked away heard the music and returned to the chief musician and everyone started playing again. The ship is about to sink, everyone shook hands with each other and said to each other, and the chief musician said, "Tonight, it is my lifelong honor to work with everyone."

This is the best interpretation of the aristocratic spirit. It tells us that there is a kind of death greater than ordinary life.

Aristocratic spirit cannot monopolize

The true aristocratic spirit should have three important pillars: one is the upbringing of culture, resist the temptation of materialism, do not regard pleasure as the purpose of life, and cultivate noble moral sentiments and cultural spirit. The second is the responsibility of society. As a social elite, we should be strict with self-discipline, cherish honors, support vulnerable groups, and shoulder the responsibilities of the community and the country. The third is a free soul, an independent will, dare to say no in the face of power and money, and has intellectual and moral autonomy, can transcend fashion and trends, and is not enslaved by political power and the opinions of the majority.

Aristocrat, whether in terms of title or substantive confirmation, must be consistent with his morality, knowledge and behavior. Otherwise, even if his power is overwhelming and wealth is as good as a country, he will not be able to enter the ranks of nobles. The true meaning of aristocrats refers to their possession in spirit and noble behavior. The nobleness of the aristocratic spirit is to live cleanly, gracefully, and dignifiedly. He will not betray his faith and do whatever he wants for the sake of the immediate real interests. In this sense, spiritual aristocrats should have nothing to do with the so-called rich people. Spiritual aristocrats are not necessarily rich, and rich people are not necessarily nobles. Because this aristocratic spirit cannot be bought with money.

Nobles not only create civilization, but also history. "Declaration of Independence", " Declaration of Human Rights ", "Non-violent Revolution", "I Have a Dream", they put these civilization ideas into practice, create a brilliant history, and become a milestone for mankind to move towards civilization. Creating history does not mean creating civilization; creating civilization is also creating history.