Meaning:
Keep your work separate from your private life; don’t do business with friends.
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This flies in the face of the Chinese wisdom I inherited: "Plenty of peeps make
your journey a breeze." From what I heard, business was routinely done among
chums while having pleasure, be it a sumptuous meal, a lavish present, or
something more exotic.
Aspiring to Junzi, we shunned topics of money or deals and carried things out
with a subtle sublime beauty unappreciated by blood-chugging raw-meat-chomping
barbarians.
At the highest level, some of the country's leaders set great examples. Comrades
Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao, e.g., used to be Chairman Mao's bosom friends, until one
day they were not, of course. Still, we are a nation of 5000 years of proud
history. We despise wealth and power and relish mixing business with pleasure!
