When you face trying circumstances, everything that you encounter has the effect of bitter medicinal herbs and the stone needles used in acupuncture. These needles and medicines serve to refine your character and conduct, although you do not realize it.
When you are experiencing smooth sailing, it is as if the path ahead were strewn with weapons, which harm you bit by bit until you are finally destroyed. At such times a man can be compared to lamp oil, which is gradually consumed until there is none left, although he is unaware of it.
居逆境中，周身皆针砭药石，砥节砺行而不觉；处顺境中，眼前尽兵刃戈矛，销膏靡骨而不知。
Notes
The “harshness” of adversity is growth in disguise—it forces reflection and forges resilience through discomfort, ultimately strengthening character.
The “comfort” of prosperity masks hidden peril—it lulls one into complacency, eroding discipline and ambition through indulgence.
Circumstances hold no absolute good or ill; true mastery lies in response. Life’s highest state is not eternal ease, but being unyielding in storms and incorruptible in calm.
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