花三十块钱，买瓜一个，回来吃，却是苦的。扔掉？舍不得，毕竟这个瓜花掉三十块钱；吃掉？太痛苦，比吃黄连，绝对好不到哪里去。 不仅瓜，生活里，常常可见类似的事情。去某地旅游，去后非但不觉得开心，反而坐卧难安，就想立刻掉头回去。但绝大多人仍然会硬撑着将所有景点游完，尽管游览时，必定是不开心的。 放弃，这笔钱什么也没有买到；不放弃，这笔钱买到的是难受，是痛苦，甚至是灾难。既如此，为何仍然舍不得它？只因为，那是钱。 可是，钱到底有什么价值？钱的价值，无非有二：一为生存，一为生活。当一笔本该买到享受或者快乐的钱注定买不到享受和快乐，那么这时候，放弃这笔钱，是不是一种花钱甚至做人的智慧？ 将一笔注定不会产生价值或者产生负价值的钱放弃掉，也是钱的一种价值吧？
Another
Value of Money Zhou Hailiang
I spent 30 yuan (RMB) for a
melon. When I ate it at home I found it more bitter than sweet. I was reluctant
to throw it away for it cost me money after all. But to eat it was a painful
thing no better than tasting goldthread. Things like this occur frequently
in one’s daily life. For example, when going on a tour one fails to find the
pleasure one seeks. On the contrary, one is so uncomfortable as if on pins and
needles. In such a case one would like to return immediately. But most tourists
still choose to continue their way until they finish visiting all the scenic
spots, though they do not quite enjoy them. If you give up, you’ll get
nothing; you would have spent money in vain. If you don’t give up, what you’ve
got is something to cause you suffering or pain, or even disaster. Since that’s
the case, why are you still reluctant to part with it? The only reason is: it
means money. To pursue the question to the
bottom, what value does money contain after all? Its value is none other than
the following two aspects: (1) it can be used for one’s living; (2) it can be
used for one’s daily life. When a sum of money that should be able to obtain
joy or enjoyment is destined to fail the purpose, isn’t it wise to give it up?
Isn’t it a sort of wisdom for money-spending or even for behaving oneself? To abandon and forget a sum of
money that’s doomed to be void of value or to produce negative values can be
counted as another value of money. Isn’t it so?
（李文茂 译） |
