Attach importance to the modern value of Laozi's thought.
Laozi served as a historian of book management in Zhou Dynasty for a long time. He is not a big official, but a librarian at most, which makes him read many books and classics that others can't see, mainly because of Laozi's genius and diligence, which makes him familiar with politics, history, music, astronomy, geography and human feelings. Laozi was the first philosopher in China and the world. Confucius visited Laozi twice, seeking peace and courtesy from Laozi. Confucius came back and told his disciples: Lao Tzu is like a dragon! ("I saw Laozi today, and he is still evil!") Zhuangzi admired and admired Laozi's thoughts most, and thought that Laozi was "a great man of ancient times!"
Laozi's Tao Te Ching is simple in structure, but broad in content and profound in thought. Tao Jing mainly expounds the origin of all things in the universe and the law of yin and yang changes in heaven and earth; "Virtue Classic" mainly shows the wisdom of governing the country and keeping the country safe, the ability of advancing and retreating in life, self-cultivation, health and longevity.
In the history of China, Laozi's thoughts attracted the attention of several emperors. From the early Han Dynasty to the five dynasties before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Laozi's Taoist thought was regarded as the mainstream thought of governing the country and safeguarding the country. Later, Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, personally annotated the Tao Te Ching, and specially named Lao Zi "Emperor Xuanyuan". Song Huizong's Evonne, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and Qing Dynasty's ancestor Aisingiorro Fu Lin all made detailed interpretations of Tao Te Ching, all from the perspective of managing the world.
There is an important historical origin between China, party member and Laozi's thought, especially the military strategic policy of "attacking the enemy later" of China's Party, which is one of Laozi's three treasures of "not being the first in the world" (benevolence, frugality and not being the first in the world). Not being the first in the world: militarily speaking, we should not strike first, but focus on defense, waiting for action, that is, retreat for progress, and then strike first. From the perspective of social politics and personnel, it is "backward"-not taking the lead, not striving for the first place, and being a leader. Laozi thinks this is an important strategic move to realize the idea of "defeating the strong with the weak", because it reveals the development law of the unity of opposites and mutual transformation of things, and provides a powerful ideological weapon and spiritual pillar for the weak to defeat the strong.
1In April, 945, Mao Zedong said humorously when answering the experience that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were able to successfully crush three anti-military frictions created by the Kuomintang die-hards: First of all, I want to thank Lao Tzu. The first one comes from Laozi, which is not the best in the world, the second one is preemptive, and the third one is no preemptive. The second article is from Zuo Zhuan. Get out of the way You hit the border area, I'll retreat first, and I'll stay 30 miles away. The third article comes from the Book of Rites, "It is disrespectful to come without going!" After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Mao Zedong identified "the advantage of backwardness" as the first principle of the military strategic policy of active defense, so as to safeguard the security of the motherland and consolidate national defense. It can be said that the guiding ideology of "attacking the enemy later" runs through the whole historical process of Mao Zedong's revolutionary war in China and the anti-aggression campaign after the founding of New China.
Why did Mao Zedong admire Laozi's military thought of "not being the first in the world"-taking retreat as progress and defeating the enemy later?
In my opinion, the most important thing is Lao Tzu's military thought of "not being the first in the world"-taking retreat as progress and making the enemy attack from behind, which reveals the universal law that the weak army defeats the strong army. In the article "Strategic Issues of Revolutionary War in China", Mao Zedong listed many famous war cases in the history of China War, such as Chu-Han War, Yuan-Cao Guandu War, Wu-Wei War and Battle of Red Cliffs War. "Both sides have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the weak will attack the enemy first, thus winning" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 1, p. 204). -This is also the essence and core content of Mao Zedong's active defense strategy! It is precisely because for a long time, how the weak people's army can defeat the powerful enemy is the most urgent life and death problem faced by the China * * * production party and its people's army. Therefore, when guiding the people's army to carry out the revolutionary war, Mao Zedong scientifically absorbed Lao Zi's philosophical thoughts of "not being the first in the world" and "defeating the strong with the weak" from Marxism–Leninism's point of view, and put forward a military strategic policy of actively defending the enemy from behind.
Laozi's thought has also had an important influence in all countries of the world. Dr. Suzuki Teitaro Daisetz, a Japanese Zen master, said, "I regard Laozi as the representative of oriental thought". Capra, an American high-energy physicist, thinks: "China's philosophy provides a philosophical framework that can adapt to the new ideas of modern physics, while China's philosophy implies the concept of' field', and the concept of' qi' is strikingly similar to the quantum' field'". 1987, American President Ronald Reagan quoted Laozi in his State of the Union address, which made the modern value of Laozi's thought widely valued in the west, set off a craze for Laozi, and became the second largest translated book in the world.
Laozi's way is the way of the weak. "Laozi's theory is only beneficial to the people, not to the king."
First, Lao Tzu is a great philosopher. In Tao Te Ching, he not only put forward and expounded the dialectical thinking of human society, governing the country and keeping the country safe, but also put forward that "Tao" is the origin and basis of all things in the universe, established a systematic philosophical thought with "Tao" as the core, including ontology, dialectics, epistemology, nature of heaven and earth, health and longevity, and expounded the general law of natural changes of all things in the universe. Mao Zedong once said that Lao Tzu's Tao is a universal truth in the universe. Laozi put forward a series of dialectical propositions and concepts in Tao Te Ching, such as whether there is mutual existence, whether there is difficulty, whether there is difficulty, whether it is good or bad, doing nothing, and weak is stronger than strong.
Laozi has a high position in western academic circles. Hegel thinks that Laozi is the representative of China's ancient philosophy, and Laozi's philosophical thought represents the childhood of human philosophy. After reading Tao Te Ching, Hegel once said with emotion: The philosophical hometown of the world is in China! What dominates this era is the so-called unity of spirit and nature that we find in the eastern world. Lao Tzu said, people everywhere, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature.
Second, Laozi's way is the way of the weak, and Laozi's thought is essentially to speak for the weak (the broad masses of people). Qin once said: "This theory of Laozi is only beneficial to the people, but not to the king." It is not difficult to understand that Laozi's thought was gradually rejected and diluted after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Sima Qian believes that Taoism is the only outstanding achievement among the pre-Qin philosophers who absorbed the strengths of other philosophers. From the standpoint of paying attention to nature, people's livelihood and the weak, Taoism advocates "Taoism is natural" and "governing by doing nothing", which is easy to implement. He said: Taoist thought is based on the theory of four seasons' fortune of Yin and Yang, absorbing the strengths of Confucianism and Mohism, and extracting the essence of famous artists and legalists. It develops with the development of the times and changes with the changes of things. There is nothing wrong with establishing good customs and applying them to personnel. The intention is concise, easy to grasp, and get twice the result with half the effort (due to the harmony of Yin and Yang, the goodness of Confucianism and Mohism is summarized).
For example, Lao Tzu advocates that a person should have an atmosphere, "thick but not thin, but not artificial", which is simple and clumsy, that is, unsophisticated and tactless, keeping children's innocence and not showing off!
Be "good as water": be soft, be gentle and not argue. Learn from Jianghai, the "King of Hundred Valley", and cultivate the mind and tolerance of Jianghai.
-politicians should "take the people's hearts as the heart"; Tell the truth ("saints don't accumulate-simple, selfish, less desire"); Don't be a poor leader, don't engage in image projects, ("governing a big country, if you cook small things"); Pay attention to people's livelihood and cherish people's strength; Pay attention to the weak and solve the problem of unfair distribution ("people's hunger is based on the amount of tax paid." People are difficult to treat, and there is much to be done. ""saints often save people, so they don't abandon people ") and so on.
Laozi also put forward philosophical methods and strategies for the weak to overcome the strong: such as clumsiness, wisdom, stupidity, keeping a low profile; Want to go to Ju Gu, want to beat the strong with the weak, want to take the first place; Know its white, keep its black, and so on.
The way of Confucius is king. Although he is not a philosopher, he is a thinker of status.
First, Confucius' thought lacks philosophical thinking. Hegel didn't think highly of Confucius. He thinks that Confucius is not a philosopher, and compared with his contemporary western philosophers, Confucius has no philosophical thoughts. In the Lecture Notes on Philosophy, he said: There is only "common sense and morality" in the Analects of Confucius, and there is nothing in speculative philosophy-only some kind and moral lessons, from which we can get nothing special. This "common sense morality" can be seen everywhere, and it may be better. This is a thing that has no outstanding points. -West Rosei (note: philosopher in the late Roman Republic, famous for eclecticism and advocating the idea of "immortal soul") left us a book of moral lessons, which is richer and better than all the books of Confucius.
Second, the core of Confucius thought is "benevolence", and Confucius values "benevolence". What is benevolence? "Self-denial is a gift, it is benevolence." Rites are the rites of the Zhou Dynasty, and the hierarchical system of slavery society in the Western Zhou Dynasty. What Confucius pursued and worked hard all his life was to restore Zhou's rites: minister, father and son. The heyday of slavery in the Western Zhou Dynasty was an ideal society in Confucius' mind. He yearned for the Western Zhou Dynasty all his life and dreamed of the Duke of Zhou. To this end, he went from Lu to Chen twice and asked Lao Tzu for the "gift" of the Zhou Dynasty, which was criticized by Lao Tzu. Confucius advocated that everyone's words and deeds should be regulated by the standard of etiquette in Zhou, and he wanted to "don't listen if you are indecent, see no evil". On this basis, Confucius advocated encouraging learning and kindness, advocating integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world, so as to achieve: "If there is a benevolent and ambitious person, it will harm benevolence, and if it is used, it will kill him" (The Analects of Wei Linggong). Feudal emperors naturally liked these ideas out of the need to maintain their rule.
Sima Qian's evaluation: Confucianism advocates taking emperors as models and standardizing the words and deeds of subjects all over the world, but advocates personal moral cultivation such as benevolence, righteousness and courtesy, and lacks specific thoughts on governing the country and the people. In my opinion, the Confucian way is king, and its subjective consciousness serves the feudal ruling class; It suppresses any reform within the system and leads to autocracy. Confucianism advocates the ceremony of monarch, minister and father and distinguishes husband and wife, which is correct, but if we go too far, it will become a hierarchical system with strict barriers and no personal freedom, which will make society stagnate and it is difficult to accept the new ideological system.
Confucius advocated the policy of obscurantism. He said, "people can make it happen, but they can't let it be known." Laozi, on the other hand, is against fools. He advocates that the education of ordinary people should be simple and not deceptive ("If people don't know, they are stupid").
Of course, we Marxists should divide Confucius into two parts and make a concrete analysis with a critical eye. Although Confucius is not a philosopher, he is still a thinker with status. There are some truth and people-oriented things in Confucius and Mencius' thoughts. Confucius, in particular, was a great educator. For example, Confucius advocated that politicians should lead by example, "politicians are upright" and "they are upright and have no orders to do things"; It is advocated that politicians should put "trust" first, followed by "sufficient food and grass and sufficient soldiers". Confucius, in particular, was the first to put forward the slogan of "teaching without distinction", arguing that everyone, rich or poor, has equal right to education. In the attitude and method of learning, Confucius advocated "never tire of learning, never tire of teaching", "forget food when you are angry, and forget your worries when you are happy". Mencius' people-oriented thought of "valuing the people over the monarch" has positive significance and is the essence of China's traditional history and culture.