The Practical Significance of Complementary Confucianism and Taoism

1, Confucianism and Taoism complement each other is a kind of life wisdom.

Life is rare, I don't know how many chances will make a life; Moreover, this kind of life needs the support of family, and the cultivation of society can become talents, so life cannot be wasted. How to know life and how to spend it is a university question, endless and bottomless. At the same time, different people have different views and choices. The complementary outlook on life between Confucianism and Taoism should be a better choice, because it is a great wisdom, and its beauty lies in guiding people to achieve a proper balance between reality and transcendence, progress and circuitous, so as to maintain themselves and make life follow up.

According to the Confucian theory of "governing by doing nothing", a person should give full play to his inner potential, including morality, intelligence and emotion, and try his best to help others develop their own potential and promote the full use of everything. This is what The Doctrine of the Mean says: "Try your best to be a man, try your best to be a man, and then try your best to be a thing." All genders, sizes and emphases are different. We can't ask for uniformity, but we should try our best. Confucianism advocates "acting according to one's ability, and then resigned to fate" to give full play to people's subjective initiative, but there are quite a few factors that cannot be dominated by human resources, so they cannot be forced. "Destiny" refers to the maximum you can achieve in life, so you can't say it until you have finished everything. Confucian philosophy of life holds that people should treat life positively, make use of all conditions to study, pursue advanced studies and cultivate themselves, so that they can develop healthily in all aspects of "benevolence, wisdom and courage", and take this as a starting point to actively participate in social reform and construction, care for others, care for groups and do beneficial things for the public. This is "self-achievement".

However, life is a difficult journey. Not only is the road tortuous and full of difficulties, but nine times out of ten there are unpleasant things. As the saying goes, it never rains but it pours If you are eager to succeed, or do everything well, or stubbornly force yourself, you are bound to hit a wall everywhere, full of troubles, or you will become pessimistic and give up your life. Therefore, on the one hand, people's temperament should be proactive, strong and unyielding, on the other hand, it should be calm and flexible, which requires Taoist wisdom. Taoist wisdom can give us at least three inspirations. One is that if you do something, you must not do it. You should not only learn to fight, but also learn to give up. Huai Nan Zi said, "You can't say what you can say, but you can do what you can." If you give up, you will gain something, which is similar to Lao Zi's wisdom of "don't give if you want." The second is to conform to nature and the times. The reason why things didn't succeed after hard work was because the opportunity didn't come. You might as well take a step back and wait for it to happen instead of forcing it. Lao Tzu said, "I don't know what happened, I was reckless" (chapter 16), and this sentence should be firmly remembered. The third is to maintain a detached and chic attitude and open to the world. Keep a distance from everyday right and wrong. While being the master of life, you might as well be a bystander, stand on a higher level and look at things with a "Taoist point of view". If you can't help yourself, you will enjoy yourself, so you will get a kind of spiritual freedom. Taoist attitude towards life makes people's life flexible and helps people bear all kinds of blows without losing the joy of life.

The ideal life is the combination of Confucianism and Taoism, which complement each other. Advance, advance, retreat; Some things are positive and some things are negative; Enthusiastic about social welfare undertakings, while leaving enough spiritual space for yourself. China's outstanding intellectuals often take the complementation of Confucianism and Taoism as their life belief, so that they can settle down without having to believe in a religion. The complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism will still provide people now and in the future with an active and transcendental philosophy of life, from which people will learn.

2. Complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism is a political art. ..

Politics is the concentrated expression of group interests, and it is the field with the strongest reality and the sharpest struggle. When political means can't solve the problem, it will often develop into a military conflict, causing many tragedies on the earth. The complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism can provide a political idea different from the philosophy of struggle, and advocate dealing with complex practical problems with highly rational wisdom in order to benefit human society.

The political idea of complementary Confucianism and Taoism first advocates the division of labor and cooperation between social managers and the managed, which makes political management swing between doing something and doing nothing. Political management must make a difference, and modern social management especially needs managers to be busy and devote themselves wholeheartedly. According to the Confucian idea, managers should "rule the country by virtue" ("rule the country by virtue"), care about people's sufferings, implement benevolent policies, and make people rich and get a good education. Is it better to manage it more? That's not true. According to Taoist philosophy, political management must be "doing nothing and doing everything" (Chapter 48), that is to say, managers are not arbitrary, but their duty is to create a good environment and social security for people to give full play to their talents, so that people will naturally perform their duties in their respective posts and do their best to form a situation in which * * * has management and * * has political participation.

Secondly, among countries, nationalities and groups, the study of harmony is advocated. Both Confucianism and Taoism oppose the war of aggression and bully the weak with the strong, and advocate peace and friendship. Confucianism advocates "harmony without difference" (Lutz) and "harmony is precious" (learning to be excellent is to be an official). Confucianism believes that human beings are a big family, and unity is related to * * *, so people should have a kind of love. Wang Yangming said: "Heaven and Earth are integrated" (University Question), people should not only love their own kind, but also love everything in nature. People are "insensitive" because of illness, resulting in estrangement and hostility Taoism advocates goodness and resolutely opposes war. Laozi said, "Those who help others with Tao do not rule the world with soldiers" (Chapter 31), and "Soldiers are ominous devices, things or evil things, so there is no place for those who have Tao" (Chapter 31). He also said: "Heaven benefits without harm, and humanity does not dispute" (Chapter 81). Taoism believes that "Tao is one", and everything in the world is a whole, interrelated and interdependent, and should not be artificially separated.

Confucian "harmony" opposes both "fighting" and "sameness" and advocates the harmony of diversity. For peace, we must communicate. Tan Sitong, a modern thinker in China, put forward that "benevolence takes communication as the first meaning" ("benevolence"), and explained Confucian "benevolence" with Taoist "communication". The so-called "communication" refers to openness, communication and communication. The theory of benevolence best meets the needs of modern society. Nowadays, due to the trend of economic globalization and the development of information and transportation, human beings have become a veritable global village. The common interests among countries, nationalities and groups began to surpass their differences and oppositions. Therefore, when dealing with international and ethnic disputes, we must replace the philosophy of struggle with the theory of benevolence, carry out dialogue, promote communication, dilute old grievances and achieve reconciliation. In addition, human beings have no other way out (see Mou: "

3. Complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism is a cultural concept.

Mankind has created a highly developed culture, including philosophy, religion and art with value system and aesthetic function, as well as very advanced science and technology. However, modern science, technology and culture not only improve the quality and life of human beings, but also make human beings extroverted and instrumental. Modern people can have cars, buildings and computers, but they can't have true feelings, purity and mountains and rivers. This is sad. Two balances are needed here: one is the balance between scientism and humanism; The first is the balance between humanism and naturalism. Scientism holds that science is omnipotent and can solve all the problems faced by mankind. In fact, science belongs to instrumental rationality and is a means to benefit mankind, but it can't solve the loss of faith and moral decline in the meaningful world. Scientific achievements are used for improper purposes, which will also bring serious harm to mankind. The Confucian cultural spirit of attaching importance to human nature, education and family ties can correct the shortcomings of indifference and coldness brought by scientism and restore the dignity and enthusiasm of ideals, beliefs and morality. Humanism is certainly good, it can promote the prosperity of culture. However, too many people, too many human feelings, too much education and too many complicated laws will alienate people from nature and simple feelings. Taoism attaches importance to the cultural spirit of nature, simplicity and regression, which can make up for the disadvantages of human drag and ecological deterioration brought by one-sided humanism and restore the simplicity of human nature and the beauty of the environment. In this modern society, which values reason over literature, people over reality over ideals, the complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism can find a healthy direction for the future development of human culture. Human beings must attach importance to the Confucian view of "benevolence and righteousness" and the Taoist view of "nature" and strive to build a new ecological civilization including humanistic ecology and natural ecology. Humanistic ecology requires the balance of morality, intelligence and emotion within human nature and the harmony between people. Natural ecology requires harmonious interaction between man and nature, and nature itself forms a virtuous circle between ecological chains. Human beings in the next century should learn the cultural concept of complementary Confucianism and Taoism and embark on a new path.