See Wang Xiaolie sitting there, looking up at the sky, squinting his eyes slightly, motionless. Chen Qiudao looked at Chen Yuyi and shook his head slightly.
In recent days, Wang Xiaolie has often been lost in thought like this. As I talked, I didn’t know where to go, which made me feel helpless.
Why is China lagging behind? I don’t know how many people have put forward this question in so many ways. It all sounds reasonable, but not all wrong. The only thing that has been proven correct by practice is the teacher's thinking that is very different from the original theory.
Where did the teacher’s ideas come from? Guided by Marxism-Leninism, it was summed up in the practice of the Chinese revolution. In his previous life, Wang Xiaolie thought that the most important thing was the Marxism-Leninism in the front, but now he understands that the most important thing is the practice in the back.
Why is China lagging behind? Some people say it’s because of China’s traditional Confucian culture, and even say it’s cannibalism. Some people say that there is no scientific thought in Chinese tradition, while others say that it is because China’s political maturity has suppressed the emergence of new ideas. There are all kinds of opinions, from all kinds of angles. Some make people think deeply, and some make people laugh.
When I left the small village where I grew up, I did the same thing...
Now in Wang Xiaolie's eyes, these statements are just the ramblings of a primary school student who is just seeing the world. Not to mention analyzing problems and guiding practice, there is no value in discussion. Their value is to break an old world at the right time, but not to build a new world. When the old world is broken, what should grow out is the new Chinese civilization that is reborn from the ruins.
A teacher once said that we are good at breaking an old world and even better at building a new world. Practice has proved that the teacher is too optimistic.
Suddenly coming back to his senses, Wang Xiaolie saw Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi looking at him strangely. He smiled and said: "I'm sorry, I just thought of other things and was distracted. - I just remembered that in the first volume of the Tao Te Ching, it said, 'Tao can be explained, but it is not Tao. It can be named, but it is not named. Everything is nameless. The beginning. It is famous as the mother of all things. This sentence actually contains great truth."
Chen Qiudao said: "Lao Tzu is a sage in ancient times, and his words have profound meaning."
"No, no, no!" Wang Xiaolie shook his head repeatedly. "My attitude towards classics is that I understand as much as I understand. If you know, you know. If you don't know, you don't know. Whatever is right is right, and what is wrong is wrong. Standing on the shoulders of the predecessors, future generations should look at Go further and know more, and you cannot keep repeating the knowledge of your predecessors. I mention this sentence to talk about Lao Tzu's attitude towards the world."
Seeing that Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi didn't understand, Wang Xiaolie added: "I preach, and what I preach is not preaching in the ordinary sense. What exactly does this sentence mean? After a thousand years, I dare not say it. It's about preaching. An attitude towards the world. Can people understand the world? People in the past thought this question was meaningless. In fact, reading the Tao Te Ching is still meaningful to Laozi. I think that people can understand the world, but they cannot fully understand it. Understand the world. Understanding is incomplete. Concepts, definitions, and even the entire organizational structure based on these understandings are bound to be imperfect. In other words, all knowledge cannot reflect the real world. More generally speaking, such as famous people Can the proposed solid white be separated? In fact, it cannot be separated. After being separated into molecules, solid white and solid white become the products of people's knowledge of nature, and are no longer real solid white stones."
Seeing Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi's confused expressions, Wang Xiaolie waved his hands with a smile: "Okay, let's not talk about these boring topics. I'm talking about all theories, whether they are said by saints or fools. , in fact, they cannot truly reflect the world. Based on these theories, we cannot truly guide human practice. All theories are not absolute truth. Only when the theory is combined with practice, has been practiced, and has been tested, can it truly become a theory. . This tested theory will guide the next step of practice, but it will be incorrect and must be tested by new practice. In other words, theory is corrected by practice, but it can never guide practice perfectly."
Seeing Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi looking at each other and smiling bitterly, Wang Xiaolie continued: "It doesn't matter if you don't understand what I say for a while. You will understand it naturally when you do more things in the future. The relationship between theory and practice is very important to us. No It’s just understanding, but more importantly, it’s related to the way we do things. If you understand this relationship, you will also understand how to treat practice and theory at work.”
Only then did Wang Xiaolie realize that he had underestimated "On Practice" in his previous life and failed to realize the great significance of this theory.
To fully understand "On Practice" is not to look at what is written in it, what evidence it provides, and what practices it guides. In fact, when the teacher wrote "On Practice", it had its historical limitations. Rather, we must understand the role of practice from "On Practice". It should be recognized that practice should be guided by theory, but cannot be completely guided by theory. Practice based entirely on theory is a failed practice.
From the understanding of the world, all human knowledge is summarized from the incomplete understanding of the world. The theoretical system formed by such knowledge will inevitably not reflect the reality of the world. Instead, we should constantly revise the theory in practice to get closer to the reality of the world.
When I talked about philosophy in my previous life, I always talked about the basic issues of philosophy. The first question is who is the origin of matter and consciousness, who is the primary nature, and who is the secondary nature, and the division between materialism and idealism. The second question is whether the world can be known, divided into gnosticism and agnosticism.
In fact, for Chinese thought, these two issues do not have any particularly significant meaning. This is the difference between civilizations. In the ideological system of Chinese civilization, there is no omniscient and omnipotent God, and there is no need to discuss God. Is matter primary or consciousness primary? How important is it to the Chinese? Known or unknowable, don’t you have to understand the world bit by bit? The value of these two questions is mainly reflected in whether there is a God and whether God is omniscient and omnipotent.
For Wang Xiaolie, he doesn't care at all whether materiality or consciousness comes first, and he doesn't even know what important influence the two have. Whether the world is knowable or unknowable is equally unclear. For people, it is natural for people to not fully understand the world. What is there to discuss? No one is born knowing it, but in China, even children understand it.
Without God, the ideological system is completely different. Later people's evaluation of ancient Chinese thought would not put such strange labels as simple materialism, idealism with simple dialectics, etc.
Can people understand the world? Wang Xiaolie's answer is yes, and no. It's possible because of practice, and it can be done through practice. It cannot be because in the process of practice, you do not realize what you already know. Only by looking back after this stage can we realize that we have known each other.
To put it in the language of the previous life, understanding the world must be through practice. In the process of practice, we move towards a goal, and we never know whether we have achieved this goal. But in practice, when you get close to your goal, you will suddenly enter the next stage. This is called quantitative change causing qualitative change. Only when a qualitative change occurs and we look back will we know approximately when we have achieved our goal.
When we usually do things, we can clearly know whether it is completed or not because we set deadlines. Or someone, such as a superior, may tell you whether the matter has been completed or not. rather than actually accomplishing the goal. The most common situation is that your superiors tell you that you have completed the task and the task is over, and you look back and realize that you have finished it.
Theory cannot become theory without practice, and practice is not just the deduction of theory. The relationship between practice and theory should be guided before practice begins and continuously revised during the practice process. In the process of being revised by practice, theory naturally undergoes a leap, and a new theory is born in the form of quantitative change leading to qualitative change. Only when we look back at this time can we know that the practice has been completed. Without new theory, the practice of old theory will never end. For people in practice, there is no end.
Looking at Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi, Wang Xiaolie said: "Confucianism talks about human society and often talks about the great harmony in ancient times, and then the well-off society. If we don't talk about troubled times, we are now in the well-off society. With normal development, we will one day be well-off. Entering a new world of great harmony. Then I ask you, can mankind enter a world of great harmony? How to do it, and when will it be considered that it has entered a world of great harmony?"
Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi lowered their heads and thought. After a while, Chen Qiudao said: "As long as you work diligently and love the people, you will eventually get in."
Wang Xiaolie shook his head: "Never. It can only be said that as long as humans work hard enough, they will be infinitely close, but they will not be able to enter Datong."
Seeing the confused expressions of the two people, Wang Xiaolie added: "But can we enter? Actually, we can. As long as we get infinitely close, one day we will find that human civilization has entered the next stage. At that stage, we are now Many of the things we have been striving for have become a matter of course. Many of the confusions we have now will be known to women and children at that time. Just like the Master said: If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening. At that time, the Tao that you seek but cannot get will become You can learn common things with a simple education. Looking back at that time, you realize that you have entered the world of great harmony. However, at this time, you can only see which stage is the world of great harmony, but you cannot clearly draw a boundary. .Before it was Xiaokang, and then it was Datong. This is called having degrees without boundaries. Because dividing differences is how we humans understand the world, and differences are defined by humans."
Judging from the expressions of the two of them, Wang Xiaolie did not want to dwell too much on this issue. Said: "I'm talking about this today because the following work must have the correct method. In the future, when the government does things, in addition to daily work, it must first make a plan. What problems should be solved, what goals should be achieved, and why are they doing this? After the plan is made, during the process, there must be many things that are inconsistent with the plan, or it is impossible to complete it according to the plan. Or according to the plan, the result is not what it was originally thought. At this time, someone will either modify the plan, or Make changes to the steps of the work. When the work is completed, it will definitely be different from the original plan. This difference will determine whether it can meet the established requirements and who will be responsible. After completion, a report must be formed. This report must be submitted to the supervisory office Approved and archived.”
Having said this, Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyi still looked confused. Wang Xiaolie continued: "Have you noticed that if you do things this way, you will naturally divide into two types of people. Some of the people in the yamen have to make decisions when the plan does not match the reality, and some of them have to make decisions when the plan does not match the actual situation. They do things strictly in accordance with the requirements. The former type of people are the officials in the yamen. The latter type of people are the officials in the yamen. The officials and officials are not divided because the court has limited money and food and cannot afford to support so many officials. Officials who spend money. But because when doing things, they are naturally divided into officials and officials."
Hearing this, Chen Qiudao and Chen Yuyicai nodded together, looking like they were suddenly enlightened. In fact, Wang Xiaolie doubted whether they really understood. But the general meaning should be clear. The people who work for the government include officials, officials, and servants. Most people don't really know why there is such a distinction, how to manage it, and what tasks each of them has to undertake. But for rulers, there should be no confusion. Rather, we should clearly realize that in normal governance, politics must separate these types of people and carry out different management.
Human beings on earth may have a common ancestor, but after so many years of development, many different civilizations have emerged. Some civilizations develop faster and some slower. Some are more advanced at this time, and some are more advanced at that time. This is normal. But regardless of whether it is advanced or backward, the theory of development must be based on itself. If we cannot put ourselves first, civilization will be lost.
In a word, the development of civilization cannot rely on plagiarism. Relying on plagiarism, civilization cannot develop normally. Thinking of many people's summary of China's backwardness in previous lives, Wang Xiaolie could only smile and shake his head. How can it be right to find what makes you different from others and say that is the reason?
