This message comes from a registered user of China Forum named "Confucius" on August 3, 2007. It is the response to a message by Man 26, another registered user of China Forum, under the question of "What we need in our lives". Man 26 argued that money is just a means to survive and to live and to fulfill dreams and "success is not measured in money" and that money is not good any longer once the person dies.

Surely money is not going to be useful for a dead body. But the point is that people are struggling to live rather than to die. Suppose that you are in your 20s, you will have a long way, say another 60 or 70 years, to live before you are summoned to join the eternity. It is this period of waiting alive that makes the money useful, and it is this period of time that makes you a man with active feeling and thinking, upon which you base you identity.

To me, life is a natural proceeding. You enjoy it with some struggling while you are still alive, no matter how transient it is, because one day you are to give it up no matter how reluctant you are. As no one really knows whether there exists another life after the death, it is better to entertain than to deny yourself while you are still having it. There is no doubt that Money can somehow substantiate your desire for entertainment.

Be genuine and be natural, without being deceived by culture. That will be good enough.

For the full text of the message, please click here.

Edited by China Forum, People's Daily Online