Chengyu

為善最樂 (wéi shàn zuì lè)

Characters

為 wéi: Do

善 shàn: Good

最 zuì: Most

樂 lè: Happy

Story

劉蒼 (Liú Cāng) lived during the 漢朝 Han Dynasty and was the younger brother of  Emperor Ming (1).  He was highly educated and well regarded by Emperor Ming.  Despite Liu Cang’s status as Prince Xian of Dongping, he did not indulge in extravagance and pleasure like other aristocrats.  Instead, he cared about the welfare of the people and advised Emperor Ming to maintain the peace and prosperity of China.

Liu Cang eventually resigned from his official post for fear of his growing prestige.  Emperor Ming then asked him what gave him the greatest joy at home.  Liu Cang smiled and replied, “Doing good is the greatest source of happiness.”

Lesson

No drama, backstabbing, and war in this story – just the story of a humble man.  Liu Cang’s chengyu, 為善最樂 (wéi shàn zuì lè) – doing good is the greatest source of happiness – is similar to the expression, “it’s better to give than to receive”.

為善最樂 (wéi shàn zuì lè) probably had Buddhist origins.  It was during Emperor Ming’s reign that China began adopting Buddhism (1).  This may explain why Liu Cang seemed to follow Buddhist beliefs of nonattachment to material wealth, nonaggression, and love for sentient beings. 

Research

Altruistic acts obviously benefit the receiver.  However, does the giver benefit as well?  There are several reasons why doing good can be beneficial to your health.

One reason is physiological – the reduction of the fight or flight response (2).  The fight or flight response occurs when your body release hormones to prepare for a perceived threat.  The hormonal boost gives you extra strength to either fight or run away.  However, prolonged exposure to these hormones weaken the immune system and make your body susceptible to illness.  Altruistic acts help turn off the fight or flight response by redirecting your mind from the stressor.  In fact, one study found that half of helpers experienced a “high” feeling while 13% of helpers experienced less aches and pains (3).

Another explanation is that positive emotions such as kindness and compassion from the good deed replace your negative ones (4).  There are three main negative emotions: sadness/ depression, fear/ anxiety, and anger/ hostility.  The “warm fuzzy” feelings from helping others would then override these negative emotions.

Finally, the evolutionary biology explanation suggests that it may be adaptive for humans to develop altruistic behaviors (5).  That is, humans have life spans well past their prime reproductive years because they were needed to care for their grandchildren.  The assumption is that if humans developed a proclivity to help their grandchildren, then perhaps this proclivity would generalize to non-kin.

Indeed, doing good can bring about great happiness.  Whether Liu Cang was right about 為善最樂 (wéi shàn zuì lè) is still up for debate.  But hey, it doesn’t hurt to give someone a helping hand, right?

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-3655 size-full" src="https://ancientchengyu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/elephant-1822516_1920.jpg" alt="An elephant giving a monk a "helping hand"" width="1920" height="1404" srcset="https://ancientchengyu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/elephant-1822516_1920.jpg 1920w, https://ancientchengyu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/elephant-1822516_1920-300x219.jpg 300w, https://ancientchengyu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/elephant-1822516_1920-768x562.jpg 768w, https://ancientchengyu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/elephant-1822516_1920-1024x749.jpg 1024w, https://ancientchengyu.com/wp-cont