Human philosophy has two sources, one is ancient Greek philosophy, and the other is Chinese Laozi philosophy. Lao Tzu is also revered as the "Father of Chinese Philosophy" by the world because of his profound philosophical thoughts.
Lao Tzu was a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period of ancient my country, the founder of the Taoist school, and the earliest great philosopher in the world with the thought of simple dialectics. It is difficult to examine his life story in detail.
According to records in "Historical Records", Laozi's surname was Li, his given name was Er, and his courtesy name was Dan. He was a native of Qurenli, Li Township, Ku County, Chu State (in today's Luyi, Henan Province). Moreover, he once served as the "History of the Collection Room" in the Zhou Dynasty, that is, the historian in charge of the royal book collection. It is said that I was smart and eager to learn when I was young. I once studied under Dr. Shang Rong, who was proficient in etiquette and music. Later, on the recommendation of his teacher, I came to Luoyi, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, to study, and worked in the collection room where the Emperor of Zhou preserved classics and documents. The collection room contains books and classics dedicated to Emperor Zhou from all over the world. Here I read a lot of books and studied hard, and my knowledge became more and more profound, and my insights became more and more profound.
After years of study and work, Laozi was not only familiar with the rules and regulations, but also had a lot of knowledge about the rise and fall of politics. Gradually, Laozi's reputation spread abroad. Even Confucius, who came to Luoyi to study, planned to come to him for advice on etiquette. knowledge.
Confucius attaches great importance to the ritual system and pays attention to self-denial and restoration of ritual. Therefore, he wanted to go to Luoyi, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, to "observe the system of the ancestors" and conduct an on-site investigation to the source of the ritual and music system. It happened that Confucius' disciple Nangong Jingshu was a nobleman of the Lu State, so Confucius asked Nangong Jingshu to report the matter to Lord Lu and apply for funds and chariots and horses. Seeing that Nangong Jingshu came to ask for it in person, Lord Lu readily agreed. Confucius was provided with a carriage, two horses, a boy and a chariot for his trip to the Zhou capital, so Confucius, accompanied by Nangong Jingshu, arrived at Luoyi, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty.
In Luoyi, Confucius met the scholar Laozi whom he had admired for a long time, and under his guidance, he visited the doctor Chang Hong. He also visited the Mingtang where gods were worshipped and the ancestral temple where ancestors were worshipped. Rare and unique copies were shown to Confucius.
After Laozi guided Confucius to travel around Luoyi, Confucius took his accompanying disciples to visit Laozi and sincerely asked him for advice on "rituals". After listening to Confucius' question, Laozi smiled and said nothing, but opened his mouth and asked, "What do you think of my teeth?" Confucius' master and disciple looked at Laozi's scattered teeth inexplicably, not knowing what they meant. Then, Lao Tzu stuck out his tongue and asked, "So, where is my tongue?" Confucius looked at Lao Tzu's tongue carefully again. A sudden inspiration came to him. Confucius had an epiphany. He smiled and replied, "Sir, he is very knowledgeable, and his reputation is truly worthy of his reputation." !" Then he said goodbye and left.
Disciple Zilu was full of doubts and could not be relieved. Yan Hui asked why, and Zi Lu said: "We came all the way to Luoyang. We originally wanted to learn from Lao Tzu, but we didn't expect that he would not teach us anything. We only asked him to look at his mouth. This is too rude. Right?" Yan replied: "Our trip this time is worthwhile. Mr. Laozi taught us great wisdom that we can't learn elsewhere. He opened his mouth to let us see his teeth, intending to tell us: Although the teeth are hard, they are After being rubbed up and down for a long time, it is inevitable that it will be incomplete; he also asked us to look at his tongue, which means: although the tongue is soft, it can overcome hardness with softness, so it is still intact." After hearing this, Zilu suddenly realized.
Yan Hui continued: "This is just like the flowing water on the journey, although soft, but when faced with the rocks, it can break through the mountains and rocks, and finally leave the rocks behind; although the wind passing through is nothing, but when it loses its temper, it can also It can knock down a big tree and uproot it..." After hearing this, Confucius praised and said: "Yan Hui can really know the whole leopard by looking at a spot, and he can understand a thousand miles by hearing a word!"
When Confucius left Luoyi, Laozi came to see him off. He said to Confucius: "I heard that the rich and noble give money to others, and the benevolent and righteous people give words to others. I am not rich or noble, and I have no money to send you. I would like to give you money as a gift. A few words to say goodbye. In today's world, most of the smart and insightful people have difficulty in saving their lives. The reason is that they like to ridicule other people's shortcomings and mistakes. The reason why people who are eloquent and knowledgeable often cause trouble is because they like to show off others. It’s a crime. As a son of others, don’t put yourself first; as a minister of others, don’t put yourself first. I hope you will remember it.” Confucius heard Nuonuo’s words and kept them in mind.
After returning to the state of Lu, Confucius's students asked him to explain the knowledge he learned from Laozi. Confucius looked envious and said emotionally: "Laozi is knowledgeable about the past and the present, understands the source of rituals and music, and understands the return of morality. It is indeed me. A good teacher." Seeing his disciples looking at him and waiting for the next step, Confucius said again: "I know birds can fly; fish, I know they can swim; beasts, I know they can walk. Those who walk can be ignored, but those who swim can be ignored. It can be made into a string, and those who fly can be made into a feather. As for the dragon, I don't know how it rides on the wind and clouds to ascend to the sky. I saw Lao Tzu today, and it looks like a dragon evil!"
In the third year of King Zhou Jing's reign (517 BC), civil strife broke out in the Zhou royal family. Lao Dan had already foreseen that the Zhou Dynasty was over and decided to leave the palace and go into seclusion. He rode a green bull and wanted to leave Hangu Pass and travel west to Qin State. He rode a green bull and headed to the Western Regions alone. To go to the Western Regions, you must pass through a pass, namely Hangu Pass. There are two towering peaks facing each other on both sides, and there is a dangerous and winding trail in the middle.
One day, Yin Xi, the officer guarding the gate, went to the top of the city to look out. He saw a cloud of purple air slowly coming from the east in the vast blue sky, so he expected that a saint would arrive today. Yin Xi was also a studious person and hoped to learn from the saint, so he sent people to clean the road for forty miles and burn incense along the way to welcome the saint. Sure enough, not long after, he closed the door and looked into the distance, and saw a man riding a green bull slowly approaching with extraordinary grace. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be me.
Yin Xi personally opened the hall on the tower, invited me to sit down, served tea and poured water, and was busy non-stop. I sat down neither humble nor arrogant, and looked out the window. I saw the loess plain extending to the sky, vast and endless. The terrain of Hangu Pass is dangerous, and people and cars passing by on the road can be clearly seen at a glance.
Yin Xi respectfully said to Laozi: "I admire your moral knowledge and want to become your teacher." Laozi said: "I am old, empty in my belly, and have no knowledge. How can I have the nerve to teach others?" Pleased to see him shirk, he politely told me that if I want to leave the country, I must present the official customs clearance documents. I was originally a man who resigned from office and went into seclusion. Naturally, I didn't have any customs clearance documents, so I was immediately in a dilemma.
Seeing this, Yin Xi hurriedly said: "If you can record your knowledge and principles and pass it to me, I will naturally let the teacher out." I had no choice but to take the pen from Yin Xi and write it on the bamboo slips in one breath. Yang Yangshasha wrote 5,000 words, which later became known as "Laozi". Because the first chapter of this book talks about "Tao" and the first chapter of the second book talks about "Virtue", it is also called "The Tao Te Ching". The reason why I wrote five thousand articles by myself was partly because of the "coercion" of Guan Ling, and partly because it was difficult to find close friends. Yin Xi picked up the manuscript written by Lao Tzu, read it carefully, and finally decided to give up his official position and leave the Western Regions with Lao Tzu. From then on, I drifted away without a trace, disappearing into the smoke and dust of history.
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"Tao Te Ching" is Laozi's representative work. It is divided into two parts, "De Jing" and "Tao Jing". It is the first complete philosophical work in the existing history of our country. This book was called "Laozi" in the Spring and Autumn Period. After the rise of Taoism, it was revered as a classic, so it was called the Tao Te Ching. Because this book only has about 5,000 words, it is also called "Five Thousand Words" or "Five Thousand Words" or "Tao Te Ching". "Laozi's Five Thousand Essays". This book has a total of eighty-one chapters. Although the number of words is small, it contains rich philosophical content and simple dialectics, and has become an important source of Taoist philosophical thought.
It is said that when Lao Tzu rode a green ox through Hangu Pass, the guard Ling Yinxi knew that he would live in seclusion, so he asked Lao Tzu to leave his work, so I wrote 5,000 words. This is the only work handed down by Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching. 》. Hu Shi, a master of Chinese studies, once evaluated Laozi as "the originator of Chinese philosophy and the first true philosopher in the history of Chinese philosophy." Laozi revealed the unity of opposites between things in the Tao Te Ching: "Misfortune is where blessings depend; blessings are where misfortune lies." He also believed: "Existence and non-existence are interdependent, difficulty and ease complement each other, long and short are Phases form, high and low complement each other, sounds harmonize with each other, front and back follow each other, and they are eternal." That is to say, the existence of things is interdependent, not isolated from each other.
The "Tao Te Ching" also contains Laozi's political ideals. His view of "governing by doing nothing" is the main content of Taoist doctrines in the past dynasties. "Governing by doing nothing" mainly refers to "doing something" in politics. In Laozi's view, the harm caused by "doing something" politics is very serious. The more prohibitions there are, the more people will fall into poverty; the stricter the laws, the more thieves will increase. The rulers imposed large amounts of taxes, causing the people to starve; the more aggressive the rulers were, the harder it was for the people to accept them.
Lao Tzu strongly opposes "promising" politics. He said that the road is very smooth, but the monarch likes to take diagonal paths; the government is corrupt, leaving all the farmland deserted; the warehouses are very empty, but the rulers still wear beautiful clothes and sharp swords; the rulers are tired of fine food, but Still need to search for more treasures. In response to this problem, Laozi proposed that rulers should "do nothing but do everything."
"Governing by inaction" means that rulers adopt natural methods when managing the people, with less desire and less action. In this way, the people's living environment is relatively relaxed and there is relatively less resistance. On the contrary, the more "promising" politics is, the more oppression and pressure it will bring to the people, and the more intense the people's resistance will be, which is not conducive to the consolidation of the political power.
In addition to being used in governing the country and cultivating oneself, the theories in the "Tao Te Ching" are also widely used in the art of war and even Chinese martial arts. It is not very accurate to say that "Laozi" is the source of Tai Chi thought. Laozi absorbed the yin and yang theory of "Yi" and combined it with his own understanding and understanding of the universe. In the book, "Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things." . All things bear Yin and embrace Yang, and the Qi brings harmony." This is the specific Yin-Yang theory about the origin of all things in the universe.
It is an ancient Chinese practice to refer to the theory of yin and yang in the art of war and martial arts. Not only is Laozi used in martial arts, but it is also deeply influenced by Laozi in military theory. The most famous military treatises in ancient China are "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Sun Bin's Art of War". However, many of the military theories in "Sun Tzu's Art of War" can also be traced to Laozi's Taoist theory, such as "The image of a husband's soldier is water-like" "The shape of water avoids heights and tends to go down; the shape of soldiers avoids reality and attacks weakness." The principle of mutual reinforcement and restraint of reality and reality contained in this is exactly the same as Laozi’s principle of mutual reinforcement and restraint of yin and yang.
Therefore, the book "Laozi" has had a great influence on martial arts experts and military strategists in the past dynasties. Some people even say that "Laozi" is a military book. So, what kind of military theory is expounded in the book "Laozi"? Chapter 36 of "Laozi" says: "If you want to eliminate something, you must strengthen it; if you want to weaken it, you must consolidate it; if you want to destroy it, you must strengthen it; if you want to seize it, you must strengthen it." It is called twilight. The weak is stronger than the strong. Fish cannot escape from the abyss, and the sharp weapons of the country cannot be shown to others."
This chapter talks about the dialectical relationship between gain and loss, prosperity and waste, strength and weakness. It also contains the basic theory in the art of war, that is, when a weak army encounters a strong army, what countermeasures should be taken to neutralize it? crisis.
When there is a huge disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, how can we preserve ourselves or even turn defeat into victory? Lao Tzu gave a clear answer, that is, "the sharp weapons of the country cannot be shown to others." This is also another explanation of the "invisible way", that is, when the opponent wants to find your own weakness, but can't even find it personally, and you simply refuse to expose it to the opponent, then your shortcomings will not be exposed by the opponent. Knowing it doesn't matter how the opponent attacks.
Therefore, although Laozi never led an army to fight in a war, and Laozi did not explicitly mention any combat theory, the Tao Te Ching expounds the basic principles of everything in the universe, and its philosophical ideas are applicable to anyone. in the field.
Since the 16th century, "Tao Te Ching" has been translated into German, English, Japanese, Latin, French and other languages for publication and distribution. To date, there have been more than a thousand foreign translations of the Tao Te Ching.
Over the years, the Tao Te Ching has not only had a profound influence on Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, but also on many Western writers and philosophers in modern times, including the Russian literary giant Tolstoy and others. To this day, "Tao Te Ching" still affects each of us.
