“The Count of Monte Cristo”: walking in the world, your best trump card is:

By Luoshu (Wechat account: A must read in your life), rewritten in English by Mr. Y

In Marseilles in 1815, 19-year-old Edmond was pushed into the dungeon of the Chateau d'If.

On the damp stone wall, he carved "God is dead" with his fingernails but was reborn as the Count of Monte Cristo fourteen years later.

"All human wisdom is contained in these two words: 'wait and hope'."

Dumas used this motto engraved in the deep soul of the Count of Monte Cristo to reveal the truth of the world, the real strong do not conquer the world with gold and swords.

When the count returned from hell, he brought not the flames of revenge, but the wisdom that illuminated the abyss of human nature.

Figure 1. When the Count returned with glories, his heart had been tempered into steel with knowledge.

I. Self-salvation with knowledge

In the dungeon of the Chateau d'If, Edmond curled up in a pile of rotten grass, listening to the sound of the tide hitting the rocks. Until one night, there was a rustling sound of rubble peeling off from next door-Father Faria was chiseling the wall with fish bones.

The old man stuffed the treasure map into the crack and told Edmond: "Knowledge is a sharper weapon than shackles." So, a self-redemption began.

The dark dungeon became the brightest classroom.

He used the wine stains spilled by the jailer as ink to calculate calculus on his prison clothes.

Arranged the breadcrumbs gnawed by mice into letters and recited Dante's "Divine Comedy”. Used the rhythm of shackles hitting the stone wall to decipher Faria's Morse code.

"When a person knows why he lives, he can endure any kind of life." — Nietzsche

Fourteen years later, the moonlight of Monte Cristo illuminated his glorious return.

The Parisian nobles only saw him wearing a cloak covered with diamonds, but they didn't know that his heart had been tempered into steel by knowledge.

He used chemical knowledge to expose the hypocrisy of his enemies and used financial means to dismantle the enemy's business empire.

The cage that imprisons the body cannot lock up the awakened soul.

Suffering is the anvil of genius that where fools are crushed and where wise man forge his swords.

True redemption is to pick up the fragments from the ruins and piece together a more complete self than ever before.

II. Revenge with justice

"The highest justice for evil is to let it burn itself." — Hegel

The Count's revenge is not a massacre to vent his anger, but precise surgeries.

To Fernando: He transformed into Father Busoni and gently stroked the rim of the crystal goblet at the aristocratic dinner: "I heard that you once presented the head of Governor Ali, your benefactor, to the Turkish Sultan?" The red wine glass shattered, and the bloody wine flowed over Fernando's trembling fingertips.

To Villefort: he brought the illegitimate son Benedetto to court and made the prosecutor, "the embodiment of justice", kneel and begged: “How can you judge me for my sins?" The ladies in the audience covered their sneers with their fans, as if they were watching a pre-arranged satire.

To Danglars: He used a forged telegram to induce a stock market crash, and watched the banker huddling in front of the vault door, holding the last bag of gold coins and muttering: “This is mine, all mine..."

Every revenge is like an anatomy lesson:

Peeling off the hypocritical skin, greed flows in the throbbing blood vessels; removing the fat of vanity, fear parasitizes in the rotten muscles.

There is a metaphor in the book: the treasure of Monte Cristo Island is not gold, but tempered wisdom, sharper than a sword, more deadly than poison.

The poison cabinet in Villefort's mansion implies that "the core of a hypocrite must be poisonous", Just like the madness he showed when his wife and daughter was killed by his poison.

The most brilliant revenge is to make the evildoer his own gravedigger.

III.  Forgiveness and Letting Go

When Mercedes trembled and said, "Edmond, have you had enough revenge?", the torch in the count's hand went out in the wind. He remembered the sigh of Father Faria before his death: "Hatred is the shackle of a prisoner, only forgiveness is the key to escape. "

So, he let Danglars flee with 50,000 francs, watching this miser chewing gold coins in the desert. He betrothed Valentina, the daughter of his enemy, to Morel's son, so that pure love would end the cycle of feuds. He restored Albert's innocence on the eve of the duel, and the cold light of the sword under the moonlight turned into a sigh.

At dawn in Marseille Harbor, he burned the revenge plan, and the ashes drifted towards Monte Cristo Island with the sea breeze. "All human suffering comes from not letting go of oneself." He whispered something to the waves, turned and handed the treasure to Maximilian, a young man as brilliant as he had been in his youth.

"Forgiveness is not the denial of pain, but the refusal to let pain define the rest of your life." — Paulo Coelho

The sailboat heading east at the end of the novel, which was a metaphor that true freedom begins with letting go of obsessions. As the Tao Te Ching said: "He who conquers others is strong, but he who conquers himself is mighty."

Letting it go is not losing to fate but winning back the territory of your soul.

Write at the end

When Edmond's sailboat disappeared on the horizon, Dumas may have left such a revelation: the strongest trump card in life is to choose to be sober after seeing the human nature clearly, and to still believe in the light after walking through darkness.

When misfortune comes, be your own Father Faria and use knowledge to chisel through the high wall of fate.

When betrayed, be your own Count of Monte Cristo and use wisdom to dissect ugliness.

When standing on the cliff of hatred, be your own ferryman and use compassion to reduce the burden of your soul.

The real treasure is not in the deep sea or on an isolated island, but in the wise mind.

Figure 2: Never stop looking for the truth and hope. Because knowledge is power.

Source & Copyright Notice

This article is translated from the original Chinese article “《基督山伯爵》：人生在世，最强的底牌不是权势地位，也不是财富自由，更不是工于心计，而是这3点”, first published at https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4sWaNPX8ii3YlBKsup3GpQ.

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