Merits and demerits should be balanced to begin with.

     Looking back at five thousand years of Chinese civilization, countless rises and falls have occurred in the blink of an eye, each finding its own place. As for those who leave their mark like wild geese flying overhead or people passing through life, they are ultimately just that—passersby. Whether discussed in jest, revered, or used as cautionary tales, they have little to do with the mundane realities of later generations. This is because humans are pragmatic, living in the present, subject to the cycle

    of human nature, and their merits and demerits are mixed. Throughout history, the people we see are either individuals pursuing individual interests or groups pursuing collective interests. They essentially become two types of people: the living and the dead. The living are those whose reputations are mixed, and the dead are those whose merits and demerits are mixed. Perhaps only the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors can show us the ultimate goodness and virtue embodied in their great achievements. Besides them, Confucius, with his compassion for humanity, can be considered one, as can Bian Que and Hua Tuo, who used their healing powers to save lives.
    If time and space contain the entire development process of biological species, then history contains the evolutionary process of humankind. From the history of human evolution, we see enlightenment and conservatism, progress and regression, truth, goodness, and beauty, as well as falsehood, evil, and ugliness. Thus, everything is intertwined in right and wrong, becoming an undercurrent, flowing from ancient times to the present and into the endless future.
    The ancients have long been lost in the tunnel of time, carrying their individual or collective successes and failures, becoming the dead. Those who are alive continue to compete for individual or collective interests, becoming either living or dead. These competitors, starting with the Xia dynasty, bear the marks of right and wrong, or perhaps a mixture of merit and demerit. The fall of Xia and the rise of Shang were no exception. Because we read in the changing dynasties the words, "Merit and demerit balance out, beginning is the beginning." This balance of merit and demerit is a complete cycle. It is a process from the beginning to the end of a circle, and also from the end to the beginning.
    This is like a donkey pulling a millstone, a confined space filled with endless journeys. Perhaps the donkey knows where it began, but not where it will end. The clever donkey watches the millstone and the grain, knowing that only by working hard can it quickly find relief. Most donkeys, however, are not necessarily foolish, but simply wait out the time. If pulling the millstone is a merit for the donkey, then its thoughts are a fault. They only want to end their day's work by balancing merit and fault. The former type of donkey, however, is able to rest sooner because it understands how to read people's expressions. Donkeys are like this, and so are humans.
    For many, we are simply ordinary. Thus, the human tendency to do good is like climbing a mountain, while doing evil is like a landslide, making it impossible for us to have only merit and no fault. We can only constantly correct ourselves through self-reflection. The clever person, because they are good at self-correction, overcomes more obstacles and has more merit than fault. Ordinary people, deep down, follow the example of the little horse crossing the river, having more fault than merit.
    In fact, looking at history and every life, their cycle is a process of balancing merit and fault, beginning with the beginning itself. This is often a conclusion we draw for ourselves, and also a conclusion drawn by others and future generations. Take, for example, a particular stage in someone's life. Regardless of whether they represent individual interests or are a key figure in a group's interests, when they receive numerous rewards or benefits for their gains, they are radiant. However, when they make a mistake or miscalculation, their fate is often to start over or atone for their wrongdoing. Thus, what they leave behind is the starting point, or even the end point, where merits and demerits balance out. Thus, we see Han Xin of the Western Han Dynasty, Zhou Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty, and Zhu Di, the restorer of the Han Dynasty… They left posterity not only with stories, but also with the profound truth that merits and demerits balance out.