What's the point of not indulging in people and not giving them affection?

It means: if a person has no hobbies, is not interested in anything, and has nothing in front of him, so he is ignorant of learning, impetuous, has no true feelings, pushes himself and others, and is so kind to things, how can he be kind to people? Such a person is certainly not worth socializing with.

Source: The Elephant Skin of Enlightenment, the prose Tao Anmeng by Zhang Dai in the Ming Dynasty.

Original text:

People can't make friends without addiction, because there is no affection; People can't communicate without shortcomings, so there is no true qi. Yu Youqi Zhixiang is addicted to calligraphy and painting, cuju, drums and cymbals, ghost play and pear garden.

At noon, I arrived in Du Nan and found Po. I said, "Where did you come from?" Po is coquettish like a woman, naive and a rogue, pretending to be unsmiling and refusing to see anyone. If you eat olives, your throat is astringent and tasteless, but your rhyme is sweet; If you eat alcohol and tobacco, you are helpless, soft and drunk. It was disgusting at first, but then I thought about it. Stop fine tuning, bite nails and chew iron, grind words and teach them by mouth, and grandma will come to their senses.

Yiyou fell down, stopped Xiang and ran home. He met a local thief, his sword and neck were stabbed, and his life was ruined. Po is a baby. Xu Bing was stationed in Taizhou with his troops, and was ransacked by the chaotic people, and all his bags were stopped. Po sang songs all the way to feed his master. And came back, only half a month, and took it away. It is such a hobby to stop a wife from dying and treat child molestation as one's own life.

Vernacular translation:

People who have no hobbies can't associate with him because he has no deep feelings. It is impossible for a person to associate with him without flaws, because he has no true qi. Friend Qi Zhiyang likes painting and calligraphy, playing football, playing drums, ghost play and pear garden.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642), I went to Nanjing, but I stopped to let Ashi come out to meet me. My evaluation is: "How did people like West Wu Jialing get it?" Po is coquettish like a girl, but a little silly and naughty. He deliberately put on a disobedient look and didn't want to get close to people. Getting along with Po is like eating raw olives, but the aftertaste is sweet. Like addictive tobacco and alcohol, choking in the throat makes people intoxicated. I hated him when I first met him, but I will miss him infinitely after I met him. Zhixiang is proficient in melody, just like biting nails and chewing iron. He grinds and teaches word by word, and a playboy like Bao can understand the meaning of this song.

In the second year of Shunzhi (1645), Nanjing fell, and Zhixiang met robbers on his way to escape. Sword and neck together, Po's most precious moment of life and death. In the third year of Shunzhi (1646), he went to Taizhou as a military supervisor and was robbed by thugs. Zhixiang went bankrupt, and Posang helped all the way. When they came back, only half a month later, Zhixiang left with Po again. Leaving his wife is like taking off his shoes. He only regards this child as his own life. This is his hobby.

Extended data:

Zhang Dai (1597- 1689) was born in (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and later changed to Shi Gong, whose name was Tao An, whose name was Diean Jushi and Liu Xiuju. Zhang Dai was born in a bureaucratic family with a well-off family. When he was young, he traveled around and had a wide range of knowledge. He often spends his leisure time in various arts, and his life is comfortable and colorful.

After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai refused to work in the Qing court, and became a poor man from a rich boy with no worries about food and clothing. He lived in poverty and ended up writing books in the mountains. Zhang Dai is good at prose, and has written a lot in his life, including Lang Yong Ji, Tao An Meng, West Lake Dream, Night Sailing, Afterword of Stone Chamber, Four Books and so on.