Victory

The moment their hands touched, Long realised his opponent was far weaker than himself. Long had learned martial arts out of a passion for the art of fighting from a reclusive master in the countryside. His master taught Long carefully about inner strength and also about martial ethics. The more he learned, the gentler and more ethical Long became. Long entered the ring because he wanted to experience real combat and learn what was good in other fighters. His master kept reminding him: however good you are, there is always someone better.
In this bout Long's opponent was Ninh, who came from a fairly well-known martial arts school and also fought in the ring from time to time. But professional fighters, merely by facing each other, before throwing any blow, can sense who will win. As he came into contact with Ninh's techniques again and again, Long realised that Ninh did not have enough inner strength to fight him, and his techniques were not as deadly. Ninh realised it too, and so seemed worried.
Ninh's eyes grew more and more desperate. Long was surprised by the despair in those eyes. For a fighter in the ring, winning and losing is a normal matter; why be so desperate as to seem utterly lost? Often Ninh attacked in a rush, hoping for luck, but could do nothing, and then became so desperate that he could not even fight.
In the final round, Long took a punch from Ninh and fell to the floor, admitting defeat.
Three months later Long received a letter from Ninh that read: "Thank you for saving my daughter's life. She has a congenital heart defect and needed urgent surgery, and I had nowhere to find the money, so I took the gamble of entering the ring, hoping to win and get the prize money for her heart operation. I only wonder how you knew I needed the money so desperately and let me win that fight. You lost the prize money and your honour, but you saved my daughter's life. Later I will bring her to bow to you and ask you to be her godfather." Only now did Long understand what the despair in Ninh's eyes had been. 🤺

People spend their whole lives looking for victory, always having to compete over who comes out on top. In conversation with friends they must win the argument. In artistic performance they must outdo their colleagues. In studies and competitions they must come first. With property they must show themselves richer than the whole village.

Then in daily life, they never stop competing over a little prestige, vying over a little vain reputation, snatching a little advantage, contending for a little status. At the level of high world politics it is even fiercer: if you do not win you are destroyed. The urge of the competitive mind wears us out and lowers our ethics without our knowing it; we think only winning is happiness, not knowing that victory is not necessarily happiness, and sometimes, on the contrary, victory is suffering.

Some victories are very meaningful, very ethical, very noble, such as victory in the struggle to protect territorial integrity, or victory in the battle of public opinion to reassure the people. But many victories make us more despicable, such as winning a rigged card game, winning over a corrupt girl, or tricking a large sum of money out of a simple-minded person...
We must have enough wisdom and ethics to control our competitive mind, knowing when we need to win and when we need to yield and lose. Sometimes we lose and our hearts are peaceful and calm; sometimes we win and regret it all our lives.
In the end, as a saintly philosopher said, to conquer a thousand enemies on the battlefield is not as great as conquering oneself in matters of wrong and merit, right and wrong.