Escalation of Feelings
《心路历程》

The following words occasionally heard from a person of younger generation evoked my great curiosity: "Envy-jealousy-hate." I made an investigation and found it had already become a vogue phrase.
偶尔听到后辈说"羡慕嫉妒恨"，煞是新奇，一打听才知已是流行之语。
In the ancient times people knew that each creature in nature has its strengths and weaknesses. That's why we have such a saying, "A foot may sometimes prove short while an inch may prove long." However, things are quite different in actual life.
古人知天生万物长短不齐，故云：尺有所短，寸有所长。但生活中往往不是这样。
On the social scales those at lower level envy those on the higher, especially in regard of riches. It is not rare now that a millionaire pops up overnight. What is visible to the public is the harvesting, not the plowing. The rapid development of information technique has made it possible to change ways and means of gathering riches so that they became vague and complicated, no longer familiar to the public eye. Thus it is easy for envy to turn into jealousy, especially when people witness those around them suddenly became rich. Inevitably they will be greatly affected by jealousy. They will complain, blame others and curse fate.
低者羡慕高者，多为财富，尤其这些年不乏一夜暴富者。公众看得见的是丰收，看不见的是耕耘；加之信息的革命，拢财的手段改变，让财富的积累摆脱了公众熟悉的模式，变得扑朔迷离。于是，羡慕很容易转化成为嫉妒，尤其是身边人发财，妒火中烧，醋意大发，怨天尤人。
Envy-jealousy-hate shows up a clear picture of the escalation of a person's feelings. Nowadays in either officialdom, academic circles or business world competitions are becoming fiercer and fiercer. The cruelty of competitions is being felt deeper and deeper by those who are not accustomed to it. It makes people nervous who have relaxed for many years. Those who are quiet at a loss will certainly be caught in the net of envy-jealousy-hate.
羡慕嫉妒恨，很清晰的一幅心路历程图。今天不仅在生意场上，在学术场、职场、官场上，由于竞争之惨烈，让那些不习惯竞争的人切身感受到了竞争的残酷，也让松懈了多年的一些人紧张起来，不知所措者，一定会"羡慕嫉妒恨"。
It's much better for one to reconcile oneself to the status quo or exert oneself to catch up than fall a victim to envy-jealousy-hate. Why? Because the ancient already had a wise summary: things all have two opposites that are mutual complementary: "Pure-impure; large-small; long-short; rapid-slow; joy-sorrow; hard-soft; early-late; meticulous-sketchy etc.," all these do not deny or vanquish each other; they co-exist and complement each other.
其实，与其羡慕嫉妒恨，不如安于现状，或奋起直追。为什么这么说呢，因为古人早有总结，事物的两个方面互为补充："清浊，小大、短长、疾徐、哀乐、刚柔、迟速、高下、出入，周疏，以相济也"，并不相克。