Discuss the ways of self-cultivation, governing the country, using troops and keeping in good health, mostly focusing on politics. It is the so-called "inner sage and outer king", which has profound meaning and wide tolerance and is known as the king of all classics.
Tao Te Ching is one of the greatest works in the history of China, which has a profound influence on traditional philosophy, science, politics and religion. According to the statistics of UNESCO, the Tao Te Ching is the largest cultural masterpiece that has been translated into foreign languages except the Bible.
What kind of book is Tao Te Ching? Tao Te Ching takes the philosophical meaning of "virtue" as the guiding principle, and discusses the ways of self-cultivation, governing the country, using troops and keeping in good health, but it mostly aims at politics. It is the so-called "inner sage and outer king" theory, which has profound meaning and wide tolerance and is known as the king of all classics.
The Classic of Tao Te Ching, also known as the True Classic of Morality, Five Thousand Words of Laozi and Five Thousand Articles of Laozi, was a work before the separation of pre-Qin philosophers in ancient China, which was highly praised by the philosophers at that time. This legend was written by Laozi (Li Er) in the Spring and Autumn Period and is an important source of Taoist philosophy. Tao Te Ching is divided into two parts. The first part of the original text is the Tao Te Ching, and the second part is the Tao Te Ching, without chapters. Later, it was changed to the Tao Te Ching in the first 37 chapters, and the Tao Te Ching in the last 38 chapters, divided into 8 1 chapters.
Tao Te Ching covers philosophy, ethics, politics, military science and many other disciplines. , and was respected by future generations as a treasure house of governing the country, managing the family, cultivating oneself and doing research. It had a profound influence on China's philosophy, science, politics and religion, and embodied the world outlook and outlook on life of the ancient people in China. The cultural thoughts of pre-Qin philosophers and China people were influenced by Laozi. Its influence is also various, including politics, culture, science, religion and so on. According to the incomplete statistics of the Yuan Dynasty, from the pre-Qin period to the Yuan Dynasty, there were more than 3,000 kinds of works that studied and annotated the old, among which there were no fewer than 1000 kinds of representative works, which showed the great influence of the Tao Te Ching.
The silk book Laozi, namely Tao Te Ching or Tao Te Ching, was written before the twelfth year of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty (BC 168), earlier than Dunhuang edition and Chu bamboo slips edition, and these editions were all in the order of the German edition before the Taoist edition. It reveals the original meaning of Laozi's pure virtue and returning to Taoism, which is the true version that best embodies Laozi's thought and is called the classic of virtue and Taoism. The version after the Han Dynasty is the order of Tao first and virtue later, which is called Tao Te Ching. What is the difference? Talk about your own views and invite Fang Jia to criticize. Tao refers to the primitive laws in the universe, nature, society and life. The existence of these laws is a priori and does not change with the degree of individual cognition. Tao, like a road, already exists. Even if everyone doesn't leave, Tao still exists in its original position. Virtue is swift. It refers to the process that individual life perceives, understands, experiences and explores Tao. Tao is universal, while virtue is the result of unique experiences of different individuals. Different individuals have different understandings of Tao because of their different living environment, cultural background, education level and social experience. For example, the water of the Yellow River flows eastward to the sea, but it flows north and south in Hetao area. Different people's understanding of the Yellow River can be different. Although the Yellow River is always like this, different people can get different cognitive benefits. This difference only shows the realm and level of different individuals' cognition of Tao. Each individual can only understand a limited Tao. Because Tao can be Tao or extraordinary Tao. The process of seeking Tao is virtue. It can be the inheritance of predecessors' experience, and it also requires individuals to practice, experience, think and explore. If we don't inherit the Tao (experience) known by our predecessors, we will experience everything. Then because life is short and fragile, we can only explore and experience Tao at a low level. Birds and beasts in nature are generally like this. And blindly eating old paper piles and being bookworms, without their own personal experience, such a road is just an armchair strategist. The ancients said: Read thousands of books and take Wan Li Road. That is, the process of seeking Tao is also the process of unity of knowledge and action. Tao has different levels, which are gradually revealed with the continuous exploration of individual life. Tao is innate, no matter whether a person has Tao or not, it will not transfer. For example, every cell contains DNA, which contains genes that determine biological characteristics. All known organisms on the earth have the same genetic code. This fact is as long as the history of life, and human beings have only learned some fur in the last thirty or forty years. However, this genetic law (Tao) will not disappear because humans don't know (Germany). Virtue is the process of seeking Tao, and different individuals have different cognitive levels of Tao. The more a Tao is recognized by individuals, the greater its practical influence and the greater its moral development. That is, as Lao Tzu said, people can gather Tao unless Tao gathers people. It's like everyone takes this road, which has changed from a rugged path to a wide road. The higher the level of Tao, the fewer people you get. Such as the theory of relativity, only a few people can understand it until now, but this Tao has always existed. The definitions of Tao and morality have been discussed above. Let's talk about the relationship between morality and morality. In ancient times, there was no writing and no language. The life experience and social experience of predecessors are difficult to pass on to future generations. Each individual can only know Tao through his own practice. Apes are not essentially different from other mammals. There are only some innate behaviors and acquired behaviors such as imitation, imitation and conditioned reflex to understand the world. So the understanding of Tao is similar to that of animals today. This time should be the first virtue, then the road. It is the standard era of virtue. After human beings have language and writing, their abstract thinking ability has been improved. The achievements of predecessors in seeking Tao can be passed on to future generations in the form of words and language. Especially after mastering the unique logical reasoning and abstract thinking, the ability to seek Tao has been greatly improved. Virtue has also reached the highest level of life form. In this era, there are two ways for human beings to seek Tao. They inherited the Tao of their predecessors-from Tao to Tao. Practice first and then summarize-from morality to Taoism. Before Laozi, although human beings had accumulated certain Tao, their understanding of nature was superficial after all. Laozi said "Metaphysics is Metaphysics". Therefore, the ancients emphasized that morality and Tao were right, that is, they experienced Tao through their own behavior. It is also realistic. At the same time, due to the mystery of Taoism, the ancients particularly emphasized the pursuit of Taoism by virtue. Therefore, virtue is more important than Taoism, and virtue is before and after Taoism. This is for the classics of virtue and Taoism. This is a positive attitude towards life. From Xia and Shang Dynasties to Warring States Period, China's civilization accumulated a certain amount of Tao. Therefore, some people advocate giving up wisdom and regard some scientific exploration and superb technology as strange skills. Only in the era of feudal hegemony, due to the needs of real struggle, this idea is not very prominent. In the era of great unification, especially after Confucianism, the ruling class carried out the people's spirit of exploration in order to consolidate the political power. We should cover up all the known truths, let alone advocate exploring the unknown. Including the tampering of Laozi's moral classics and Taoism, all serve this purpose. It is harmful to change the Tao Te Ching into the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching emphasizes morality. As individuals, people feel, verify and explore the origin of Taoism more through their own actions. Regard Tao as an open, infinite, developing and continuous law. Emphasizing people's subjective efforts and the infinity of truth is an enterprising attitude towards life. Is that people can get together. Tao Te Ching emphasizes inheriting the experience of predecessors. Then Tao becomes a limited, rigid and static law. The life guided by this emphasizes the rigid inheritance of pre-humanity and sticks to the rules. Educate students to pay attention to imparting knowledge, rather than advocating criticism and development of predecessors. Teach people to fish, not to fish. The relationship between Tao and morality can be developed and improved in many ways, such as putting morality first in Tao, putting morality first in Tao, showing morality, showing morality, showing morality, showing morality, showing morality, showing morality. Choosing Tao Te Ching or Tao Te Ching reflects a life attitude and method. Let the enterprising, developing, open and continuous Tao Te Ching recover its true colors!
What kind of book is Tao Te Ching? Tao Te Ching
You Laozi
The most famous was in the fourth century BC.
Among China's voluminous books, there is a thin paper, which may have the most translators and readers abroad. This book is called Laozi or Tao Te Ching. Tao Te Ching is the main text to explain Taoist philosophy.
This is a subtle and difficult book. The writing is extremely obscure and can be interpreted in many different ways. The main concept of Tao is usually translated as "method" or "road". But this concept is a bit vague, because the Tao Te Ching itself said at the beginning: "Tao, if it can be said, is not an eternal Tao;" Name', if you can call it, it is not an eternal name. " But we can say that the general meaning of Tao is "nature" or "laws of nature".
Taoism believes that people should not fight against Tao, but should obey and act according to Tao. It is not so much immoral to actively pursue power or actively seek to exercise power as ignorance and futility. The Tao cannot be extinguished, and people should try to take the road in life. A Taoist may point out that water is infinitely soft, it flows to the lowest point in a tame way, even without resisting the weakest force, but it is indestructible; The hardest rocks will eventually be worn away.
For individuals, simplicity and naturalness should usually be advocated; Violence should be avoided, just as all pursuit of fame and fortune should be avoided. People should not seek to transform the world, but should respect it. For * * *, a slightly negative policy is usually the most sensible policy. Laws and regulations are cumbersome, and passing more laws or strictly enforcing old laws usually makes things worse. High taxes, ambitious plans and waging war all run counter to the spirit of Taoist philosophy.
According to the legend of China, the author of Tao Te Ching is a man named Lao Zi. It is said that he was a contemporary of Confucius, but he was older than Confucius. Confucius lived in the sixth century BC. Judging from the content and style of Tao Te Ching, few modern scholars think it is such an early work. There are many controversies about the actual creation date of the book (the Tao Te Ching itself does not mention specific people, places, dates or historical events). But 320 BC is a reliable estimate-the error with the actual date is within 80 years-perhaps much smaller than this error range.
This question has caused a lot of disputes about the year of birth and death of Laozi and even the authenticity of Laozi. Some authorities believe the legend that Laozi lived in the sixth century BC, and therefore come to the conclusion that he didn't write the Tao Te Ching. Other scholars pointed out that he was just a legend. My personal opinion is only accepted by a few scholars. I think: (1) Laozi is a real person and the author of Tao Te Ching; He lived in the 4th century BC. (3) The legend that Laozi is the older generation of Confucius is pure fiction, which was fabricated by later Taoist philosophers to whitewash Laozi and his works.
It is worth noting that among the early writers in China, Confucius (55 BC1-479), Mo Zhai (5th century BC) and Mencius (37 BC1-289) did not mention Laozi or the Tao Te Ching. But Zhuangzi, a famous person in the third century BC. Taoist philosophers have mentioned Laozi many times.
Because there is even a debate about Laozi, we should be skeptical about the details of his life. However, there are many sources for the following statements: Laozi was born and lived in northern China; At one time, he was probably a historian in Luoyang, the capital of China, or a historian in the Tibetan room of North Korea. Laozi is not his real name, but a respectful name, which generally means "master"; He was married and had a son named Cong. Cong later became the general of Wei.
Although Taoism was basically a non-religious philosophy at first, it eventually set off a religious movement. However, although Taoism, as a philosophy, continues to be based on the ideas expressed in the Tao Te Ching, it is quickly accepted by all sentient beings' superstitious beliefs and habits, which has nothing to do with Laozi's preaching.
Suppose Laozi is actually the author of Tao Te Ching, and his influence is really great. Although this book is very thin (less than 6000 words, so it can be published in the newspaper), it contains a lot of spiritual food. The whole series of Taoist philosophers take this book as their starting point.
In the west, Tao Te Ching is far more popular than Confucius or any Confucian works. In fact, this book has been published in at least forty different English versions, far exceeding any book except the Bible.
In China, Confucianism is usually the dominant philosophy. When there is a sharp contradiction between Lao Zi and Confucius, most people in China follow the latter. However, Laozi is generally respected by Confucian disciples. And many times Taoism is directly absorbed by Confucianism, thus affecting millions of people who claim to be non-Taoists. Similarly, Taoism has a great influence on the development of Buddhist philosophy, especially Zen. Although few people claim to be Taoists today, apart from Confucius, no China philosopher has exerted such a wide and lasting influence on human thought as Laozi.
Is Tao Te Ching a non-constant Tao or an extraordinary Tao? The truth can be known, but it is not necessarily a well-known truth. Names can be named and are very famous. "
At first, Lao Tzu's original text was "Tao can be Tao, but not constant Tao." Names can be named, not constant names. In the Han Dynasty, in order to avoid Emperor Heng, it was changed to "Chang".
This sentence can be interpreted in two ways.
First, explain from the aspect of cultivating immortals; The second is to explain the origin and realization of everything.
The following "nothing, the beginning of the world. Yes, the mother of all things. So there is often nothing, and I want to see its wonders. Often, I want to see it. Both of them, with different names, are called metaphysics. Mysterious and mysterious, the gate of Wan Qi. "
Cultivating immortality is relatively simple: the first word "Tao" means the method of cultivating immortality and truth, and "Ke Dao" can be practiced according to the Taoist method of cultivating immortality. "Non-constant Tao" is not eternal, and the meaning of "Tao" is changing and varies from person to person. "A name can be named"
The name of the former is the name of a treasure or a cultivation method, which can be defined by name. "Unusual name" is not static, which means that the things and methods you see are not seen by predecessors, but things will change, and everyone's experience and angle are different. Even if you see things at the same time, you will be blind and only see one side. Laozi is the ancestor of Taoism, and it is the most common to explain it according to the method of practice, but modern people do not fix the truth. . .
In particular, The Mystery and the Mystery, the Door to the Strange, points out that the basis of "the same" is the same, but there are also various methods to fix the truth, which are inevitable and feasible.
It is very difficult to explain the origin and realization of everything, and opinions vary. The following is my understanding:
"Unknown, the beginning of heaven and earth. Fame is the mother of everything. Therefore, I often have no desire to see its wonders. There is always a desire to watch. They are the same, but they have different names. The same name is Xuan; Mysterious and mysterious, the gate of Wan Qi. "
Punctuation marks are different from before, and everyone understands them differently.
Laozi first put forward two key terms "Tao" and "Ming" in Tao Te Ching. In ancient times, the words "Tao" and "Heaven" were interlinked. Here "heaven" and "Tao" are interlinked, generally referring to the law of natural execution. "Tao" represents abstract laws, rules and practical rules, and it can also be said to be a principled Tao that remains unchanged in theory or theory. "Zuo Zhuan": "The sky is far away and people are close." The Doctrine of the Mean: "Destiny is nature, and frankness is the Tao." Sun Tzu: "Soldiers are treacherous." Wait a minute. Another example is Lao Tzu's thoughts of "Tao is always doing nothing", "Tao is always nameless" and "Tao is always natural".
"Tao" is the law. Do it according to the law of "Heaven". "Non-constant Tao" is not eternal, that is, the relationship between universality and particularity. Some people say that "if you are not afraid of 10 thousand, you are afraid of one thousand", which is actually wrong. In fact, each one is a thousand, which is different and cannot be confused.
The metaphysical and metaphysical problems of "everything in the universe is born out of nothing, and everything is born out of nothing" include the theory of the origin of everything in the universe in religious philosophy and the discussion of idealism, materialism, monism, pluralism and atheism in pure philosophy. Metaphysics is also the basis of cultivating truth and immortality, that is, the small universe of self is the representation of the big universe. Everything really comes from "nothing". How can all kinds of "existence" be born out of nothing? It is a big training problem.
"Chang Wu" and "Chang" are based on the Tao of all things. If you are engaged in learning the Tao and cultivating immortals or focusing on the cultivation of mind and nature, you can look at Constant Desire and Constant Desire from your own cultivation perspective. "Natural nothingness" is the origin of heaven and earth, and "wonderful existence" is the name of predecessors or their own lives, so it is the origin of everything from scratch, from 22 to 4, from 4 to 8 to everything. Read: "Therefore, there is often nothing, and I want to see its strangeness. Often, I want to see it. " That is to say, when people want to realize the existence of the avenue, they must cultivate to the universal realm in order to observe-observe the wonderful use of life without it. Moreover, if we want to realize how to make something out of nothing, we must process it, but observing this "existence" from somewhere will eventually be on the edge of the original "nothing". The word "pay" means marginal.
Mystery of metaphysics. It is also a compulsory course in practice. The unfathomable nature of the Xuanmen.
First of all, he put forward "Tao" and reminded us that the Tao that can't be adhered to is a constant Tao forever. Then, it emphasizes that we can't stick to the "name" and seek the Tao. There is no eternal "name", such as the "name" pursued by the French revolutionary martyrs, which many people don't understand today. Secondly, it involves the relationship between the metaphysical Tao and the metaphysical "things", which is called "officials outside the Tao", that is, whether they exist with each other. Therefore, in order to understand the metaphysical "Tao" in the case of physical (name), we must understand its origin and ontology from the realm of mediocrity in order to better understand "name". To be more thorough and incisive, we need to understand its infinity in everyday life.
"These two names are different. The same name is Xuan, Xuan and Xuan, the gate of Wan Qi. " "Xuan" means "yuan", which is a mystery, but it can't be studied by one yuan and two yuan. There is still mystery in the mystery. The analysis shows that there is nothing, and there is something wonderful in it. In this way, it is really wonderful to realize the physical function of Tao, whether it is related to each other or not, and it is even more wonderful to the extreme. It is equal to the prayer beads held by Buddhist monks, which are repeated one after another, and also represent endless endless.
In the fifth chapter of Tao Te Ching, the sage suggested that people should be "centered" at the beginning of becoming a monk. So what is the "centered" method suggested by the sage?
Let's take a look at the general meaning of the original text of Chapter 5, and look at the original text first:
Heaven and earth are ruthless, and everything is a grass dog; Saints are ruthless and treat people like pigs. Between heaven and earth, it is still ambiguous: empty and unyielding, moving away. It is better to stay in the middle than to talk too much and calculate too little.
one
"The heavens and the earth are ruthless, and everything is a grass dog; Sages are ruthless, and people are cruel to dogs. This structural form is similar to Chapter 75, "People's hunger is based on hunger because of its high grain tax", which can be supplemented as "Heaven and earth are cruel to dogs, and heaven and earth are cruel; The saints are ruthless, taking the people as pigs, and the saints are ruthless. " The word "take" as "because" here is used to show that the saints of heaven and earth are ruthless because everything and people are pigs.
Heaven and earth are no longer kind to all things, because all things are dogs (dogs are compared to the law of doing evil), and all things are disrespectful, noble and benevolent, but hurt each other and fight with each other. Therefore, the heavens and the earth are ruthless, and it is no longer raining in time, or it is out of date and does not rain, leading to drought; Sometimes it rains, but it rains heavily, and there is no rain, which causes floods.
Saints are no longer kind to the people, because the people fight for them and no longer abide by morality. Therefore, saints are ruthless. On the one hand, the sage said "I must kill them" for the powerful people who "make people fear death forever and wonder". On the other hand, the ordinary people who have lost the atmosphere of "learning from the world" and no longer practice the Holy Way will be kind.
At the beginning of this chapter, the sage first put forward the view that the saints of heaven and earth are heartless because everything and people are heartless first. Just as emperors in the world punish those who break the law, as saints and saints who enforce the law impartially, they will also punish all things and people that run counter to them.
Then the sage went further with emotion and told people that there are two kinds of laws in the world, one is the supreme holy way and the other is the crooked ways. The sage uses the word "Yan" to compare the right path, which is empty and unyielding, and uses the word "Yan" to compare the evil path, which is moving and growing. The original text is: between heaven and earth, it is still the same.
& lt What kind of book is Tao Te Ching? Tao Te Ching refers to Laozi. Historical records. Biography of Old Ferry: "Guan ordered Yin to hide my son and write a book for me." So I wrote a book, said more than five thousand words of morality, and left. "Laozi's Zhang Sentence, published on Hanshui River, is divided into 8 1 chapter. The first 37 chapters are Tao Jing, and the last 44 chapters are The Classic of Morality, hence the name Tao Te Ching. But 1973 The manuscript of Laozi unearthed from the No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, was written by virtue before Taoism. Taoism is considered as one of the major classics.
Why is Tao Te Ching a heavenly book? It talks about the relationship and contradiction between Tao and morality. Tao talks about the laws of nature and the way of doing things. Virtue is about etiquette and psychology
What's so good about Tao Te Ching? The benefits of learning Tao Te Ching
1) The Tao Te Ching is a cultural treasure of China. Learning it will help us to understand the culture of China and the history of China.
As we all know, Tao Te Ching is the main classic of ancient Taoist philosophy in China. As a great philosophical work, his thoughts have penetrated into every corner of China society and China culture in various ways, which has had a great and far-reaching impact on China culture and China history. It occupies an extremely important position in China culture, China history and even the world history. Known by academic circles as the main root of China's philosophy and the treasure of oriental culture, it is recognized as a good textbook for learning China culture, especially China's philosophy. The key to understanding China's history, especially the cultural background of many important historical events such as "the rule of cultural scene", is highly respected by people all over the world (an article in Resources says that the Tao Te Ching is the book with the most translated languages in the world except the Bible), and it is the spiritual wealth of people all over the world. 1June, 994, Comrade * * * pointed out during his visit to the stone statue of Laozi in Qingyuan Mountain, Quanzhou, Fujian Province: "We should publicize Laozi's dialectical materialism and sort out and publicize the essence of national traditional culture." Studying Tao Te Ching can not only help us to have a basic understanding of Taoist philosophy and thoughts, and lay a foundation for our further study of China culture, but also help us to better understand the history of China, enhance our national self-confidence and national pride, and then inspire our patriotism.
2) Tao Te Ching is the philosophy of good people. Learning Tao Te Ching can purify our thoughts, our hearts and improve our moral cultivation.
Tao Te Ching, as a philosophical work devoted to advocating and guiding people to cultivate Xiu De and improve people's moral cultivation, can be said to be the philosophy of good people. It advises people to be charitable, frugal, modest, patient, fair, indifferent to fame and fortune, and content with contentment; Teach people to be honest and trustworthy, amiable, live in harmony, help each other, be tolerant and generous, repay kindness with kindness, put others before yourself, and sacrifice yourself for others; Persuade people to do nothing, keep quiet, let nature take its course, have no desire or desire, and repair Xiu De; Warn people not to wage war and not to interfere with nature; Guide people to understand the world correctly and face life positively ... The Tao Te Ching shines with human wisdom everywhere, and every sentence contains rich philosophy of life. If we can seriously study, correctly understand and truly comprehend, and use it to review our thoughts, standardize our words and deeds, and enhance our consciousness and sense of urgency to improve our moral cultivation, then our thoughts will be purer, our hearts will be purified, our moral level will be improved, and we will make contributions to the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, especially the construction of citizens' morality.
3) The Tao Te Ching is profound in thought and comprehensive in content. Learning Tao Te Ching can enlighten our wisdom and enhance our ability to deal with people.
Although there are only a few thousand words in Tao Te Ching, its thoughts are profound and comprehensive, involving the origin of the universe, the execution of heaven, ecological balance, environmental protection, the use of troops in governing the country, internal affairs and diplomacy, treating people with things, ups and downs, gains and losses, successes and losses, natural laws, study and work, benevolence and etiquette, monastic health and many other aspects. Philosophers can use it to study philosophy, politicians can use it to govern the country, strategists can use it to direct wars, entrepreneurs can use it to guide management, scientists can seek new ways of thinking, and artists can learn spiritual nourishment from it ... Once the idea of Tao Te Ching is accepted by contemporary people who master modern science and technology, it will be combined with modern science and actual production (life), and its profound philosophy will surely enlighten our wisdom and enhance our lives.
4) Tao Te Ching is the earliest classic of naturalistic philosophy. Studying Tao Te Ching helps us to deal with the relationship between environmental protection and economic construction.
As we all know, Tao Te Ching is the earliest philosophical classic in the world, which advocates the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The naturalistic world outlook of "harmony between man and nature" advocated by it has become the philosophical basis of the economic theory of "sustainable development" and has been widely endorsed by people all over the world. Learning Tao Te Ching can enhance our consciousness of caring for the environment and protecting the ecological balance, give full play to the positive role of Tao Te Ching in guiding us to deal with the relationship between economic construction and environmental protection, and make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China.
Of course, different people will eventually get different benefits because of different learning purposes, methods and depths. However, whoever studies hard will gain something.
Learning the Tao Te Ching-It is beneficial to open the book.