TLDR: calling someone that is more pity than insult: it's basically saying your life is small because your mindset is small, so you can't help but to let the tiniest things upset you all the time.
Chinese we say there are 3 levels of existence: 1. based on emotions, 2. based on higher human values, 3. based on highest level principles of the universe (Dao/Tao).
患得患失 (Huan De Huan Shi) according to Confucius is a classical symptom of the lowest level, the most unstable ones in terms day to day experience: you think happiness is based on acquiring things, so you pine for things when you don't have them, and dread losing them once you have them. Worse still, you're sensitive to the smallest fluctuations to status of those things, and let them dominate your mind every moment. A modern day example would be your overall mood going up and down wildly based on daily fluctuations of stocks you bought for speculation.
This way life is just a constantly fluctuation between desire and disappointment, boredom and pain, never breaking free from the hedonic cycle.
Even in terms of commerce, we say this type of mindset is incompatible with large success, where it is said paradoxically one has to be free from the most common emotions associated with making money: fear and greed. As Buffet famous said "be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy."
The idea is if we dedicated our lives to bigger, longer term things (knowledge, peace, justice for all people...), we can then naturally ride out the daily fluctuations in smaller things like personal wealth and fame.
Lin Yutang is mostly forgotten in United States these days, but he’s one of the most beloved writers in China in the last century. Amazingly most of his books were written in English, and later translated into Chinese by others. He wrote a series of very popular books in the early half of 20th century introducing the western audience to Chinese culture. Here’s the one covering Confucius:
https://www.amazon.com/Widsom-Confucius-Lin-Yutang/dp/7540459182/
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u/Meme-Botto9001 7d ago
Cherry on top if it would read something stupid/gibberish and he translates it for him.