Laozi's Thought Has a Profound Influence on the Development of Chinese Philosophy

Lao Zi's thought has had a profound impact on the development of Chinese philosophy, and the core of his thought is simple dialectics. In politics, he advocated the rule of inaction and the teaching of non-speaking. In terms of power, he emphasized the principle that what goes around comes around. In the cultivation of the body, he emphasized the cultivation of an empty heart and a solid stomach, and the cultivation of not competing with others, and was the originator of the Taoist life and life cultivation.

The Theory of the Way of Heaven

The main category of Laozi's thought is "Tao", and the word "Tao" appears seventy-three times in the book of Laozi, and natural inaction in the way of heaven is the main theme of the book of Laozi. Tao is a kind of chaos is not divided into the initial state, nothing since the transformation, quiet since the right, is the beginning of heaven and earth, the mother of all things, for the birth of the root of all things; Tao is often nameless, nothing and nothing, it is like water, good for all things without fighting with all things, in order to softness over the strong, is the highest good; Tao is ineffable, the human senses can not be directly perceived, the sight of the invisible, listen to the unheard of, held not to be. Tao is both the essence of the universe, the rule of all things, and the criterion of life. Confucianism uses heaven, earth, and man as the "three o's", while Laozi uses Tao, heaven, earth, and man as the "four great o's". The "Four Greats" added Tao on top of the "Three O's", which opened up an extremely far-reaching and imaginative thought space for the structure of Chinese cultural thought. The Tao comes from the metaphysical and penetrates the metaphysical; and in the penetration, it does not leave any room for the willful and purposeful creators, such as Heaven and the Emperor, to intervene. Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Way of Lao Tzu was a great invention based on a fundamental transformation of the original Taoism.

Portrait of Lao Tzu

The Tao, as the origin and essence of the existence of all things in heaven and earth, creates and accomplishes all things in heaven and earth. However, the realization of the Tao is not an intentional act, but an unintentional act, which is completely natural. Lao Tzu said, "Man is the law of the earth, the earth is the law of the sky, the sky is the law of the Tao, and the Tao is the law of nature." "The Tao is natural," and the natural one is also self-acquired. Nature is a description of the state and action of the Tao, not the nature of an entity other than the Tao. "To be born and not to have, to be and not to be relied upon," everything is natural because it is natural, everything is natural, and this is the nature of the Tao. The nature of Tao is natural inaction, but it is this inaction that accomplishes something; it is because of inaction that everything is accomplished. This phenomenon is highly summarized by Lao Tzu in his philosophical summary, which is "nothing is done without doing anything".

"Doing nothing without doing nothing" is not only the great virtue of the Tao, the great use, but also the most fundamental law that governs all things in heaven and earth, is the fundamental law of the individual's life, is the so-called "reason". This is the truth of all things in heaven and earth: "If you do not live, you can live forever" and "If you do not make yourself big, you can make yourself big". "The only thing that can be done is not to compete, so that no one in the world can compete with it", "Behind his body and his body first, outside his body and his body exists", "With his selflessness, so that he can become his self", this is the basic This is the fundamental law of the individual's life. "Nothing and nothing" is not only the use of Tao, Tao's reason, but also "Taoism", is the fundamental means and methods of the Houwang governing the country, the Houwang's "king" of the world, ruling the world, should also be based on the Tao as the law, the Tao is the law. The king of Hou "king" of the world, ruling the world, should also be the law of the road, "often to do nothing, and its something, not enough to take the world". Therefore, "I do nothing, but the people themselves, I good quiet, but the people themselves, I do nothing, but the people themselves, I do nothing, but the people themselves, I do nothing, but the people themselves," he said.

Dialectical Thought

Lao Tzu believed that everything in the world exists in comparison. Beauty and ugliness, good and evil, presence or absence, difficulty and length are all interdependent, there is this and there is that, there is right and there is wrong, there is good and there is evil. On the surface, it seems that the positive and negative aspects are opposed to each other, but in fact they are mutually inclusive and interpenetrating. "Woe is where the blessing lies; blessing is where the curse lies." Everything is you in me and I in you, and nothing is static. Lao Tzu puts forward in the fortieth chapter of Tao Te Ching that "the opposite is the movement of the Tao." That is to say, the development of things to a certain extent, will inevitably be transformed to the opposite side, the so-called "strong things will be old," "strong soldiers will be destroyed". At the same time, the development of things, things to the opposite side of the transformation, not all of a sudden realize, need to go through a quantitative process of accumulation. "The wood that holds together is born from the end of the millimeter; the nine-story platform is started from the tired earth; the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step."

Social Theory

Lao Zi believes that the nature of Tao is natural inaction, and that natural inaction is the fundamental law that governs everything in the universe, and is the basic code of conduct that human beings should abide by. From the principle of inaction, Lao Tzu opposes the behavior of man, because behavior destroys the original natural simplicity of man, causes the split of the personality, and brings about all kinds of social ugly phenomena, such as hypocrisy, cunning, greed, and sin. "When the Great Way is abolished, there is benevolence and righteousness; when wisdom comes out, there is great hypocrisy; when the six relatives are not in harmony, there is filial piety and kindness; when the country is in a state of fainting, there are loyal ministers." When there is a Way in heaven, everything is natural. Instead of boasting of benevolence and righteousness, there is benevolence and righteousness. When benevolence and righteousness are labeled, it means that benevolence and righteousness no longer exist. Therefore, Lao Zi proposed "absolute wisdom to abandon fraud" "absolute cleverness to abandon profit", advocating "a small country with few people, so that the people have Shibe's weapon but do not use it", "although there are boats with, no ride; although there are armored soldiers, no ride. Although there is a boat and, nothing to multiply; although there is armor and soldiers, nothing to display; so that the people to tie the rope and use it. This is a kind of retro thinking. With this social ideal, Laozi also advocates the noble soft at the weak, that "strong at the bottom, soft at the top", "the world is not soft and weak in the water, and attack the strong can not be the first", and then advocate "goodness as water "

Literature

The most perfect personality should have the same mentality and behavior as the water, "to be in the evil of all people", to go to the place where others are not willing to go, to do things that others are not willing to do, and to be patient and bear with the burden, and to tolerate the inferiority and forbearance of the people.

Literary Achievements

Lao Tzu's writings are of a certain literary nature and have had a considerable influence on later literature. First of all, the Tao Te Ching highly exerted the specific social role of literature, which played an important role in people's understanding of natural phenomena and social life at that time. Literary works are the image reflection of social life. Good literary works actually reproduce various scenes of natural and social phenomena, reflect the economy, politics and culture of a certain period of history, depict the mental outlook of different classes, strata and characters, and reflect the various real relationships among people, so as to enable the readers to gain various correct understandings of history and reality, society and life, and the Tao Te Ching has made great achievements in these aspects. great achievements.

Secondly, Laozi's achievement in writing skills. The Tao Te Ching, with only 5,000 words, is so rich in content and coherent at the beginning and end, thanks to the author's skill in writing. Laozi's literary skills can be summarized as follows: First, the text is simple and high in meaning, short and long in flavor, and good at three and four words to form a pair of sentences to describe natural phenomena and social life in colorful pictures. Later the "Tao Te Ching" is divided into eighty-one chapters, not many words in each chapter, more than eighty words, less than twenty words, but it is like a string of eight pearls, a sentence a reason between the wrong and constantly, and often rhymes in the middle of the article in order to increase the musicality of the article. Second, the wonderful use of simile wonderful use of the sentence. Wonderful use of metaphors such as chapter five of the "heaven and earth is not kind to all things for ruminants", chapter 26 of the "heavy for light root quiet for the manic gentleman"; wonderful use of couplets such as the first chapter of the "no name of the beginning of heaven and earth has the name of the mother of all things The wonderful use of couplets, such as the first chapter of "no name, the beginning of heaven and earth has a name, the mother of all things", the second chapter of "in the matter of inaction, do not say" and so on. Each sentence is embedded with the author's strong thoughts and feelings, which is the result of Laozi's wonderful use of metaphors and couplets. Third, Laozi's articles are very easy to understand, and not "difficult to recognize the subtle," but from his use of language to find out the beauty of it. Fourth, Laozi's article is good at using contradiction to illustrate the natural law of mutual transformation of things, in making sentences, the hand of the word anyway, skillfully combined with the use of it to reveal the nature of natural and social phenomena, such as: existence or absence, the same or different, beauty or evil, difficult or easy, length, up and down, high and low, before and after the real, strong and weak, and so on. Fifth, Laozi's articles are based on rational prose. Since the six scriptures and the following hundred schools of thought, the article is a tool for reasoning, Lao Zi is no exception, but Lao Zi's article plot structure and form of expression, it is unique. Six, Laozi strive to text work, a reason often with several synonyms, repeated arguments, and then because of the short language and taste long, reasoning and things nuclear, and do not feel repetitive; Laozi want to article form from the content is not "the article must be the first system"; Laozi article do not seek to drive empty, delicate, but by the real, narrative argument, rhetoric and reasoning, "Tao Te Ching" eighty-one chapters The first and last echo from beginning to end of the clear organization without confusion, reflecting the structure of the theme of the performance.