How the Tao Te Ching was unearthed is not studied here. There are several versions of "historical story", which is the research direction of archaeological historians. This kind of text shows that it can be seen everywhere in the market.

Tao Te Ching is a scripture that expounds the life characteristics of "the whole life of the universe". In layman's terms, it is to write the "original" of everything and describe the "root" of everything.

What is "all life in the universe"?

A flower is a "living individual", we are a "living individual" and a planet is also a "living individual". The "whole" that integrates all the "living individuals" is the "universe life whole".

We now realize through "science" that this "cosmic life as a whole" consists of countless "planets", big or small, far or near, in addition to the earth on which human beings depend. Of course, there is an endless "void" between them.

How are these "vast and dancing" planets and these "illusory" emptiness formed? What is its ultimate root?

It is conceivable that "one person" is really insignificant in this "whole universe", and even the "earth" where human beings live is just a "dust". If "the whole life of the universe" is compared to the beach, "the earth" is like a "grain of sand" on the beach, in which hundreds of millions of people live.

Compared with the whole life of the universe, human beings are only a part of a grain of sand.

However, we often regard human beings as the masters of life in the universe and can dominate everything. It seems that everything is "serving" mankind, which is obviously a concept worthy of reflection. Imagine, even if human beings can conquer everything freely, what makes human beings have this "freedom ability" behind them?

Laozi is naturally a member of mankind. Laozi knows his own smallness, but his "heart" has already contained this "cosmic life as a whole" and integrated it into "one" (these arguments will be gradually expanded in the specific notes of the scripture). Through the life behaviors of "I", "sage", "Hou Wang" and "Tai Shang Huang", Laozi explained to us that it is the life energy of "the whole life of the universe" that dominates the life activities of "individuals".

How to describe "all life in the universe"?

Laozi called this "cosmic life as a whole" and its life characteristics "Tao" and "Da", which is the origin of "Avenue". In addition, Lao Tzu named the "performance characteristic" of the energy of this "Tao" as "De". Generally speaking, as long as "showing" the characteristics of submission to "Tao", it is "virtue". Laozi pointed out that everything is "cherished by Tao".

However, this "Tao" is really too big, "too big to die" and too big to be without; Too small, "invulnerable, it's tiny", as small as every life core, as small as "nothing inside". "Turn a blind eye, listen but not smell" has no color, no sound, and no shape, so it is really difficult to "describe" it in words. To this end, on the one hand, Lao Tzu barely described this "Tao" with words such as "trance, profundity, Zhan Xi, Suosuo ……"; On the other hand, Laozi expounded by comparing the existence and expression of "Zi" in "Tao", that is, heaven, earth and man.

This is what distinguishes Laozi from Buddhist scriptures and other classics.

Other classics are often based on the life activities of all things, and "set up a super god or a god" to distinguish individual lives. Only Laozi pointed to the essence and expounded the individual and the whole. Perhaps this definition is more general, and some readers may not agree with it. In other words, whether it is Laozi's Tao Te Ching, Sakyamuni's Buddhist Scripture or Jesus' Bible, these three schools are all expounding the same thing, and this "thing" is the foundation of universal life.

We compare this root to the top of the mountain. The three families climbed the summit from different directions, and the scenic angles along each other's paths were different. This difference is their "difference". But the "fingers" of these three families are nothing more than the same mountain top, which is what the three "pliers" refer to.

It is worth noting that Laozi's revelation of "Tao" stands directly at the top of the mountain, just at the top of the mountain. Christ was expounded from halfway up the mountain, while Buddhism started from the foot of the mountain, because Buddhism started from the foundation. This is why most Buddhist believers in the workshops are civilians, because they can cut into very basic things. But it must be emphasized that there are essential differences between Taoism and Taoism, Buddhism and Buddhism and Christianity. The former is the law of "always wanting to see its wonders" and doing nothing; The latter includes "religion", all of which are religious factions in the world and belong to the law of "always wanting to pay the price".

Of course, the above statement is the author's reluctant "metaphor", which aims to understand the similarities and differences between the three schools without deliberately distinguishing them. Please read and forgive me.

Laozi's "Tao" is directly at the top of the mountain, which is just a metaphor. The fundamental significance is that Laozi directly cuts into the "root" of cosmic life to discuss the essence and directly says "Tao". So, where is the Tao? The answer is everywhere, everywhere. In this way, "Tao" is a "whole", from big to small.

Laozi expounded individual life as a whole, only describing the present, which is the Tao. The present individual life is expressed by virtue, but these virtues are expressed in various ways. Laozi is just describing what the energy behind these various ways is.

Tao Te Ching is the scripture that describes this "Tao" and "virtue".

Therefore, "Tao" is the total root of all things in the world, the whole and the matrix. Heaven, earth, everything and people are all "individuals" and "children" in this whole life. Laozi borrowed the word "Zi" from the word "Mother" Tao, and took the word "Man" as the representative of all things to set off and elaborate the word "Tao" itself, just to make it easy for the people to understand and understand.

But perhaps it is "how easy it is, how difficult it is", which is the easiest to understand, but it is often the most difficult to understand. This is an aspect of Tao that few people know, practice and practice. We can get a glimpse of various annotations for thousands of years.

Among them, some annotations interpret Tao Te Ching as a political strategy; Some solutions have become philosophical theories; Some solutions have become life medicine; Some solutions have become the cultivation of mind and health; Some of them have become strategies of the art of war. ...

If we try to put aside these subjective distinctions, return to the origin and get together, Lao Tzu is not describing the "origin" of the whole life of the universe. Obviously, the annotation of different "solutions" in Laozi's Tao Te Ching is only an annotation of "use". Because, originally, it is an original, a "one" and a whole unadorned "simplicity". Once differentiated, we can only get different uses of "Qi". Besides, there is no such distinction as "branch name" in the era when Laozi lived.

But it may also be that everything is conceived in the matrix of Tao, so it is not surprising that various "understandings" reflect the application of Confucian classics from many angles.