What is a best friend? This question seems easy to explain. The so-called best friend is a close friend, a golden partner, and a close confidant. However, it may take a lot of writing to really explain what a close friend is.

Sometimes, you have been dating a person for a lifetime, but you don’t know him well. It seems that there is always a layer of veil between you, and you cannot see each other’s true face. . Sometimes, it's just the opposite. You only have a one-time relationship with someone. You get along with someone for a while, but you seem to talk about everything. There is a feeling that you regret seeing each other too late. Therefore, judging whether a person is your best friend is not based on seniority, and the length of time they have known each other is not the decisive factor. This is what the so-called "golden head is like new, and everything is as old as before".

It sounds mysterious, but there are actually many such examples. For example, Boya and Ziqi became close friends just by chance. From then on, Boya played his harp only for Ziqi. When he learned that Ziqi had passed away, he smashed his harp because he no longer had any music in this world. This is the famous story of mountains and flowing water. The high mountains and flowing water, the high mountains are dignified, the flowing water is graceful, the mountains are still and the water is moving, and both benevolence and wisdom are present. Boya breaks the string, not out of the artist's loftiness, but out of the perseverance of the infatuated person. "It's enough to have a confidant in life, and we should treat each other as equals." Only when the love is deep can such a decision be made. From the stories of Boya and Ziqi, we can see that the so-called "a scholar dies for a confidant" is not just the loyalty of buddies in Taoyuan, nor is it just the heroic deeds of Liangshan heroes, but a high degree of self-cultivation. and elegant sentiment. The most touching thing about "High Mountains and Flowing Waters" is not the musical attainments of Boya and Ziqi, but the sincere affection between these two close friends.

Sometimes, the social status between close friends can be very different. For example, one is a world-famous poet, while the other is an ordinary person in a remote village. This is the situation between Li Bai and Wang Lun. I have every reason to believe that when Li Bai wrote the famous poem "Li Bai was about to leave in a boat, suddenly he heard singing on the shore, the water in the Peach Blossom Pond was a thousand feet deep, and it was not as deep as Wang Lun's love for me." At that time, it was completely from the heart. As a poet who could write such verses as "An Neng can crush his eyebrows and bend his waist to serve the powerful, which makes me unhappy", it is absolutely impossible for Li Bai to flatter anyone, let alone the ordinary villagers by the Peach Blossom Pond. , so he was indeed moved by Wang Lun's hospitality and regarded him as a close friend. He must have felt that Wang Lun was much more noble than those dignitaries wearing masks in the capital.

Occasionally, the age gap between close friends can be very far. This is probably what the so-called close friendship refers to. When Ji Kangzi asked Confucius, "Which of his disciples likes to learn?" Confucius replied, "Those who have good appearance are eager to learn, but unfortunately their lives are short-lived and they will die now." The words were so affectionate and mournful. I have every reason to believe that Confucius regarded Yan Hui not just as his student, but as a close friend who studied knowledge together.

This is a close friend, a complicated and complex close friend. Maybe it’s because of this that true friends are so rare in this world.

However, this is not the case with the opponent. The opponent refers to an opponent who is of equal skill and level in the competition. He can be someone who disagrees with you, or a stumbling block on your road to success, or even someone who covets you, or someone who competes with you for something. In other words, in simple words, the so-called opponent is the person who always has trouble with you.

Everyone wants to meet a close friend and hates to meet a rival. However, life is such a coincidence. It is rare to meet a close friend, but there are rivals everywhere. Sometimes, there may even be situations where you think that person is your best friend, but he turns out to be the one who stabs you in the back.

So, are there such people in this world who are both opponents and close friends?

Perhaps there are. In "Historical Records", there is such a biography, which tells the story of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru.

Why did Sima Qian put these two people together? It was because they had been lifelong enemies, but in the end, they reconciled and became close friends.

Lian Po was a well-known Zhao general who made immortal contributions in sieges and field operations. He looked down upon Lin Xiangru very much, thinking that he would only use his words. Although he had merit in protecting He's Bi, But how can it be compared with his integrity. Now, Lin Xiangru's position was above him, and he felt dissatisfied. However, Lin Xiangru was a generous man. He told his disciples that he was not afraid of Lian Po. Lian Po was far behind the King of Qin. He was not even afraid of the King of Qin, so how could he be afraid of Lian Po? Now that the country is in crisis, the country should be the top priority and personal grudges should be put aside. Although Lian Po was rude, he was not an unscrupulous person. He was moved by Lin Xiangru, so he exposed his flesh to a bush and apologized to Lin Xiangru. From then on, the two became close friends.

This is probably the best example of a rival becoming a close friend. It is not easy for these two people to reconcile. As the saying goes, a slap in the face can't make a difference. No matter how generous Lin Xiangru is, if Lian Po can't understand and find his way back, these two people will still never be friends for the rest of their lives. of. It was Prime Minister Lin Xiangru's open-mindedness that could support a boat, coupled with Lian Po's manly spirit of knowing his mistakes, being able to correct them, and doing great things, that made this everlasting story possible. Therefore, Lian Po and Lin Xiangru are both close friends and rivals.

However, although there is a small gap between Lian Po and Lin Xiangru, after all, they have not really fought head-on. If two people fight with real swords and guns, after the victory is determined, there will be no difference. Can a rival become a close friend?

The cases of French scientists Proust and Bertholler tell us the answer. The two men debated for nine years in order to discuss the law of definite proportions. Finally, Proust discovered the law of definite proportions and became the final winner. However, Proust did not get carried away. He attributed the credit to his opponent, "If it weren't for your challenge, it would be difficult for me to study the law of definite proportions in depth." He announced to people that his success was, " "Military Medal" is half his own and half Besoler's.

And Bertholler, like most losers, did not hide in the corner to lick his wounds and comfort himself, nor did he hide in the dark and secretly curse Proust. , but he wrote with great joy to congratulate him and pay tribute to the discoverer of truth.

We all know that the so-called competition is divided into two types, one is healthy competition and the other is vicious competition. The cases of Proust and Bertholler are excellent examples of healthy competition. . Between them, there is absolutely no so-called phenomenon of literati being indifferent to each other, no mutual exclusion and strife, and no plots or traps. It is a true duel between gentlemen. Therefore, the winner is gratified and the loser is respectable. This pair of close friends and rivals are both remarkable people.

The reason why two people become rivals is because they have conflicts of interest. Even though both parties are modest, open-minded, and don’t care about each other, they are still in conflict with each other. There are winners and losers. However, there is a kind of opponent in this world. Instead of caring about winning or losing, they work together and study problems together. Do you believe there are such people?

Some people may ask, if we study together, aren’t we friends and colleagues? How can we be rivals? You are wrong, they are really opponents, opponents on the Go board.

The names of these two people are Wu Qingyuan and Mugu Shi. They are not even from the same country, Wu Qingyuan is Chinese, and Kitani is Japanese. The era when they met happened to be the period of war between China and Japan. The raging war did not separate the two. On the contrary, they became short-term rivals and lifelong friends.

Wu Qingyuan is from Fujian and has been a Go prodigy since he was a child. Japanese chess player Kaoru Iwamoto visited China and discovered this Go genius. Soon, Wu Qingyuan, who was only fourteen years old, attracted the attention of Japanese master Kensaku Segoe and sent him an invitation letter to come to Japan.

In a competition, Wu Qingyuan met Mu Gumi, and the two hit it off as if they were the same person. Why do you say that? Because these two people actually played imitation chess on the chessboard.

The so-called imitation chess is that one side follows the other side in playing chess at symmetrical places on the chessboard, and finally forms a completely symmetrical chess game with black and white sides. It is said to have been invented by Su Dongpo, so it is also called "Dongpo chess". ". This game of chess finally ended with Wu Qingyuan imitating 63 moves and then began to change. However, the friendship between these two people did not end. On the contrary, it had just begun.

The two talked freely about their thoughts on Go, and they couldn't help but hit it off and became close friends, so the two began to cooperate sincerely. With the hard work of the two people, they finally created a new layout for Go. In that year's autumn Grand Hand (i.e. promotion stage), the two officially started to use the new layout and defeated their opponents respectively. Their competition results were ranked in the top two. In the same year, they co-authored "New Layout Method", and thus, a new era of Go was born.

Since using the new layout, the chess skills of Wu Qingyuan and Kitani Minoru have improved by leaps and bounds. Even Segoshi Kensaku is no longer their opponent.

In this world, there are always people who do good things. People really want to see who is more powerful, Wu Qingyuan and Kitani Minoru, the two inventors of the new layout. So, although they are not Although he was willing, he was still pushed to the position of his opponent by everyone. A battle between Wu Qingyuan and Kitani Minoru started again. In the "Kamakura Juban Chess", Wu Qingyuan demoted Kitani Minori with five wins and one loss, and completely defeated Kitani Minori.

Since then, Wu Qingyuan, who was unprecedented and unprecedented, created his own era of Juban chess. At this stage, with his absolute advantage in the Juban chess competition, he defeated almost all the masters in Japan at that time. From then on, Wu Qingyuan was known as the "Showa Chess Master".

Later, someone once asked Kato Masao, Takemiya Masaki, Lin Haifeng, Zhao Zhixun, Kobayashi Koichi, Otake Hideo and others, who is the strongest player in the history of Go? There is one name in the answers of these people, and that is "Wu Qingyuan".

Wu Qingyuan created a myth, and Kitani Minoru was also a Go genius since he was a child. Unfortunately, he and Wu Qingyuan were born in the same era. Therefore, after he became famous for a short time, he never got it again. What a significant title, therefore, being called "The Tragedy Chess Player".

However, Kitani Minoru is not without merit. He founded Kitani Dojo, cultivated disciples, and trained Go masters such as Hideo Otake, Yoshio Ishida, Masao Kato, Jihun Zhao, Koichi Kobayashi, Masaki Takemiya and other Go players.

Wu Qingyuan once said that Mugu Shi was the only person he admired.

What does Wu Qingyuan admire about Mu Gumi? Is it because Kitani Minoru once cooperated with him to innovate the layout? Is it because Koutani once won the few times when he played chess with him on the Wen Ping? Is it because Mu Gu is full of talents all over the world and there are many talented people in Mu Gu? Perhaps, these are all reasons, or perhaps, none of these reasons are.

In that war-torn era, Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated. Wu Qingyuan was alone in Japan, so he would naturally be ostracized by many Japanese. However, even in this situation, there was one person who could ignore everything. Regardless, it is not easy to make friends with you wholeheartedly. Mu Gushi has done all this, so Mu Gushi deserves to be Wu Qingyuan's best friend. Although they had fought against each other before, the temporary victory or defeat could not affect the relationship between the two at all. It was only after things changed that they realized that neither of them could live without the other. Therefore, even if Kitani is dominated by Wu Qingyuan, he will not resent Wu Qingyuan at all. As for Wu Qingyuan, even if his chess skills are much higher than Kitani, he will still think that only Kitani is his real opponent. Only Kitani Minoru was worthy of being his opponent.

Do you think the story of these two people is like Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang? Zhou Yu was smart all his life, but in the end he lost to Zhuge Liang, so he lamented, "Since Yu is born, why is Liang born?"

Yes, the stories are indeed very similar, but the mentality is not. Kitani did not resent Wu Qingyuan or plot against Wu Qingyuan like Zhou Yu did. On the contrary, they were lifelong friends and true friends.

Therefore, there are still people like this in this world. They don’t care about success or failure. On the contrary, they work together and study together. Wu Qingyuan and Kitani Minoru are the best examples. .

In fact, sometimes, as close friends and rivals, they may not meet each other, such as Li Bai and Cui Hao in folk tales. The great poet Li Bai was so talented and arrogant that everyone witnessed it. Who would have thought that he would sincerely admire others? As for Cui Hao, whom he admired, he probably hadn't seen him in person at that time. What he saw was just a poem Cui Hao inscribed on the Yellow Crane Tower. "People of the past have gone by the Yellow Crane, and the Yellow Crane Tower is vacant here..." When Li Bai saw this poem, he probably felt as if he was struck by lightning in an instant, and his mind suddenly became a blur. blank. After praising Cui Hao's exquisite poetry, he sighed: "The good scenery in front of me cannot be explained, but Cui Hao wrote the poem above."

This Cui Hao is the opponent Li Bai has never met. Li Bai never forgot this friend, so when he visited the Phoenix Terrace in Jinling, he imitated Cui Hao's style and wrote a poem "Ascend the Phoenix Terrace in Jinling" "The Phoenix travels on the Phoenix Terrace, and the phoenix leaves the platform and the empty river flows by itself..."

This poem by Li Bai has also become a masterpiece praised by the world. Cui Hao's "Yellow Crane" and Li Bai's "Phoenix", these two birds "fly together", leaving an eternal legend.

Perhaps, Cui Hao didn't know at all that Li Bai regarded him as his opponent and secretly competed with him. However, for Li Bai, he introduced Cui Hao as a confidant and used words to fight with Cui Hao. Singing in harmony from afar.

In fact, examples like Li Bai and Cui Hao are not uncommon, and can often be seen even in our modern society. Don't you believe it? Okay, let me use our country as an example. In Jiangshan, everyone communicates with each other through a thin network cable. They don't even leave their real names at all, and they have never met each other. However, like Cui Hao and Li Bai back then, we exchanged words and thoughts with each other across the air.

In a sense, we are rivals, because there are various lists in Jiangshan, such as the best short story list, the short story review list, the best masters, and the top masters. Ah, everyone has his or her own points, there are scholars, there are Jinshi, there are second place, there are top picks. Since there are these lists, there are naturally winners and losers, so we compete with each other on the Internet and use words to determine which one is higher and which one is lower.

However, let’s think about it from another angle. As the saying goes, “Wen does not come first, military does not come second.” What is the purpose of our writing? It's not just about fighting to the death on the Internet, fighting to the death, but like Li Bai and Cui Hao back then, they cherish each other and show off their talents. Everything else is just a cloud. Only when you make good friends is it truly meaningful.

So, for those of us who use words to communicate in Jiangshan, we are rivals, but we are also close friends.

It’s hard to find a true friend, so Boya only waited for one child in his life, and Wu Qingyuan only met one Mugu Shi in his life. However, it is also difficult to find a truly good opponent. A real opponent has no intrigues, no antagonism, no conspiracy and frame-up, but only an open and honest heart, and a true and honest battle. contest. So, if you meet a good opponent, don't give up casually, turn him into your best friend for life.

Opponents and close friends, this problem seems simple, but to make it clear, it really cannot be solved in one or two sentences. However, one thing is certain, a close friend must also be a true opponent, and similarly, a true opponent must also be a close friend.