英文摘要 |
Friendship is honored as one the "five ethical relationships" and a necessity of life by the Confucianists. However, friendship is easy to start, but hard to last. History has provided us with many examples of people who vowed to be mutual confidants, and yet, ended up as sworn enemies. Nalan Xingde was descended from a noble family in the early Qing Dynasty, famous for Ci-poems of true nature, excelled especially in heartfelt romantic love and friendship. During his short lifespan and in later generations, Nalan Xingde was widely eulogized for his generosity in aiding the needy and associating with the unbridled mavericks. His noble deeds of friendship may well be worthy to borrow as an exemplar for people today. Although he has left us no monograph illustrating the art of friendship, but we can still gain a glimpse from his lifeworks related to friendship as well as the words of condolence, elegiac address and epitaphs from his friends of how his friendship has impressed people in such a profound way. To put it in a nutshell, he has mastered the art of choosing friends, and interacted with them on an equal footing with tolerance, and was able to sincerely appreciate, compassionate, solace, and render unselfish help to them. |