The Chinese who made the greatest contribution to world civilization, why Laozi

Firstly, Laozi's doctrine of ontology laid the theoretical foundation of ancient Chinese monistic ontological philosophy.

Before Laozi, ancient Chinese philosophers were still in the stage of pluralistic ontology when they discussed the origin of the world. These included the "eight trigrams", the "five elements", and the "yin and yang". Laozi created the "Tao" as the origin of all things ontological philosophical system. This replaced the previous forms of pluralistic ontology with a philosophical monistic ontology. As a result, the direction of development of the two opposing philosophical lines in ancient China was determined. After Laozi, some philosophers understood "Tao" as "nothing" or "nothingness" and constructed the philosophical line of spiritual ontology in the history of Chinese philosophy. Later on, Song and Ming philosophers constructed the ontology of reason, which belongs to this kind; later on, some philosophers interpreted Laozi's "Tao" as "essence" and "vital energy", which gave rise to the "qi-one" philosophical line in the history of Chinese philosophy. Later, some other philosophers understood Laozi's "Tao" as "essence" and "vital energy", thus giving rise to the philosophical line of qi monism in Chinese philosophy. From the Essence of Taoism of the Jixi School, to the Yuanqi of the Huanglao scholars, to the "qi theory" advocated by some materialist philosophers of the Song and Ming dynasties, all belong to this category.

Secondly, Laozi's doctrine of simple dialectics has had a profound impact on the establishment of a system of dialectical thinking in China and the world.

Lao Zi was a famous master of plain dialectics in ancient China, and he had an incomparably rich and profound thought of plain dialectics, which was centrally embodied in three propositions: firstly, he emphasized that "existence and nothingness are born together"; secondly, he emphasized that "the opposite is the movement of the Tao"; and thirdly, he emphasized that "the size and quantity" are the same as "the size and quantity". The first is to emphasize that "existence is born from nothing", the second is to emphasize that "the opposite is the movement of the Tao", and the third is to emphasize that "the size of how much" (i.e., the big is born from the small, and the more from the less). The key to these three propositions is to reflect the "unity of opposites", "negation of negation", "quality of mutual change" and other expressions of the three laws of dialectics. This is a great creation, not only many famous Chinese philosophers through the ages of dialectics results with Laozi preserved the relationship between the origin, but also the world famous philosopher Hegel's dialectics and Laozi's dialectics is quite similar. Laozi's three major theoretical creations on dialectics were published more than 2,300 years earlier than Hegel's exposition on the three laws of dialectics. This is undoubtedly a major contribution of the Chinese nation to the world philosophical civilization.

Thirdly, Laozi's theory of cognition, symbolized by the concept of "knowing the norm," has had a profound impact on the establishment of the value of the pursuit of truth in later generations.

Lao Zi's so-called "knowing the norm" means grasping the norm, which, in today's language, means recognizing the objective laws, or grasping the truth. The emphasis on following the laws is a manifestation of Laozi's pursuit of truth. It inspired the later generations to make effective theoretical explorations in the pursuit of truth. Whether it is Xunzi's theory of "Heaven's behavior is constant", or Han Fei's theory of "reason", or even Liu Yuxi's theory of "pushing the numbers", "multiplying the situation", "taking advantage of the situation The theory of "push the number", "take advantage of the situation" and "consider the reason" of Liu Yuxi of the Tang Dynasty all express the ideological tendency to follow the objective laws, and thus are in the same vein with the thought of "Laozi" on "knowing the norm".

Fourth, Laozi's political philosophy of "ruling by doing nothing" contributed greatly to the perfection of the Taoist concept of rule.

In the history of Chinese political thought, Laozi's political strategy is a unique one, the centerpiece of which is to advocate "ruling by doing nothing". As a political strategy, it is not only helpful to remind the ruler to avoid interfering with the normal life of the people in the practice of governing the people, and emphasize on giving the people the opportunity to "recuperate"; it is also helpful to make up for certain shortcomings of the Confucianism, Mohism, and the Law in the implementation of the "rule of doing" and to rectify its mistakes. It is also conducive to remedying some of the shortcomings and correcting the mistakes of the Confucian, Mexican, and French schools in implementing the "rule by doing". To emphasize the rule of inaction is, in essence, to ask the ruler to keep himself pure, humble and self-possessed. This is the characteristic of "knowing the nature of culture and seeing the source of politics" (Li Shimin's words), which is unique in the history of Chinese political thought.