What traditional Chinese wisdom is contained in Lao Tzu's thought?

The Tao Te Ching, the only work handed down from Lao Tzu, contains a lot of traditional classical wisdom from Chinese culture. This article introduces eight of these famous wisdoms.

One, goodness is like water

Quotes from Tao Te Ching

Water is needed to nourish the growth of animals, plants, and people. Water has the merit of moisturizing the growth of all things, but it is not willing to live in a high position, but is willing to live in a very ordinary low-lying place. This kind of spirit, which is meritorious but does not ask for reward, is very valuable and is the superior good.

Not only Laozi, but also Confucius praised water for its character of benevolence, righteousness, courage and wisdom. In addition, Mencius, Mozi, Sun Tzu and other ancient scholars also praised water.

Two, the right amount of time

Lao Zi's Tao Te Ching says: "Knowing enough is not dishonorable, and knowing when to stop is not dangerous". If you can do things without being greedy, and know how to be satisfied and stop, you will not encounter danger and failure.

But if you are greedy for too much, you will not get anything at all. If you are too greedy, not only will you not get it, but you will also lose it. It has been proven that many setbacks and failures are caused by greed. To be able to be satisfied and to stop is the true wisdom.

The Chinese people have always had the idea that you can't be greedy for too much, and that you should stop at the right time and make progress step by step.

Three, the sea of hundreds of rivers

Lao Zi "Tao Te Ching" said: "the reason why the river and the sea for the king of the hundred valleys, in order to be good under the". The river and the sea is because it is in the lowest place in the world, so the hundred rivers are subordinate to it.

Lao Tzu is comparing the laws of nature to the laws of man. The king of a country is humble in his approach to the world, and only then can all the people attach themselves to him and make great achievements. Ordinary people can also gather energy and become people of greater substance if they are humble in their dealings with the world.

The Chinese people, as early as the Yellow Emperor in the ancient times, praised the sea for its capacity to accommodate all rivers.

Lao Zi

Four, to soften the hard

To soften the hard is the wisdom of the soft and weak to specialize in, the water drop is the most typical example. Water droplets with its unhurried rhythm, just tick tock, after a long time can put the hard rock drip through.

The end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, after the Qing troops into the customs Hong Chengchou led a determined resistance, the Qing army feel very difficult to deal with. At this time, the Qing empress Xiaozhuang personally, with a woman's unique tenderness, so that Hong Chengchou submitted to the Qing Dynasty, to solve the problem of tough methods difficult to solve.

Fifth, the rule of the big country, if cooking small food

Because the high wisdom of the life and society in the big and small things are all integrated, mastered to do the big and small things of the *** with the law, know that the governance of the country and cooking a small fish is the same reason. Therefore, a highly intelligent person governs the country as simply and easily as cooking a small fish.

As the saying goes, those who are difficult will not be difficult. Those who feel that it is difficult to govern the country are doing so because they do not understand the aspect of governing well enough, and the wise who can see through it thoroughly do it with ease and simplicity.

As early as in our country's Shang Dynasty, a prime minister Yi Yin said to the Shang Dynasty's monarch Tang, governing the country is like cooking, can not be too hasty, can not be too slack, to be just right.

Sixth, the success of the body

The law of the development of life and career are the peak will decline. Grasp this law, comply with this law, in the beginning of the decline of the time to take the initiative to withdraw, can make their own not to fall very bad.

China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of Fan Li, the Han Dynasty's Zhang Liang, the Ming Dynasty's Liu Bowen, etc. are after the success of the initiative to withdraw, and finally be able to good end.

Seven, the wisdom of fools

Many people believe that you have to be smart in order to achieve great things. But if you're too smart, you'll be doing yourself a disservice.

Wang Xifeng in Meng of the Red Chamber was too shrewd, and used fraudulent means in order to compete for benefits, and even killed people, and was later sentenced to prison, and died in prison. Therefore, the more shrewd, the stronger the pursuit of interests, the more confused. Those who have less profit-seeking mentality and know how to be contented are the people of great wisdom.

When a person has a low profit-seeking mind, he or she uses little skill, and so appears to be foolish. People of great wisdom are outwardly foolish but inwardly wise. Confucius' most admired disciple, Yan Hui, was a man of great wisdom. At first, when Confucius saw that Yan Hui did not question his own learning, he thought he was a fool. But after a long time of observation, he realized that he had great wisdom within him.

VIII. The Way is Simple

The process of searching for the truth is one in which the opposite is true. Medium truths seem complex, while great truths are simple. The great wisdom of the person will summarize the complexity of things very simple, but also can put the complexity of things simple to do. To make complex things simple is the wisdom that China has advocated since ancient times.