original text

Heaven and earth are ruthless, and everything is a grass dog; Saints are ruthless and treat people like pigs. Between heaven and earth, is it still ambiguous? Empty and unyielding, move out. Better be poor than stay in the middle.

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Heaven and earth are selfless, and everything is born and died naturally. Sages have no preference, and people naturally live and die. Isn't heaven and earth like bellows? Although it is empty, it will not be exhausted. The more you move, the greater its scenery. Talking too much will only accelerate failure, so it is better to keep silence inside.

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"The heavens and the earth are ruthless, and everything is a grass dog; Saints are ruthless and treat people like pigs. " The legendary Hegong (some people think that he is a native of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty) has a note: "The change of heaven and earth is not benevolent, but it is also." "Everything in heaven and earth, people are the most expensive. Heaven and earth regard it as grass, dogs and livestock, and don't blame it. " The sentence "saint" is like this. It means that heaven and earth are heartless, and nature takes everything as grass and dogs. Wang Bi's note: "Heaven and earth are natural, created by doing nothing, and everything is autonomous, so it is ruthless. A benevolent person will accomplish something, and a good person will do something. If you have something, you will lose it. If there is goodness, there is nothing. If something doesn't exist, it's not enough. Heaven and earth do not make straw for animals, and animals eat straw; Not for dogs, but people eat dogs. Everything should be done without doing anything, and everything should be used appropriately. If Hui Hui (Tonghui) is built by itself, it is not enough. " (According to Lou Yulie's "Wang Bi Ji Shi", Zhonghua Book Company, 1999 edition) Wang Bi's original intention is to let nature take its course and not add benefits to things. Everything has its own uses, such as animals eating grass and people eating dogs.

Explanation 1

In Hu Shi's Outline of China's Philosophical History (Volume I) (The Commercial Press, First Edition, 19 19), there are two interpretations of this sentence of Laozi: the first is that Wang Bi interprets benevolence as kindness; The second is the philosophical explanation that benevolence is "human". "The Doctrine of the Mean" says: "People are benevolent." Mencius said: "People are also benevolent." Liu Xi's "Ming Shi" said: "Man's benevolence; Benevolence, biology also. " Unfriendly means not human, not the same kind. The ancients regarded ambition, knowledge and anger as gods, and regarded heaven as the same kind of people, which was called the theory of harmony between man and nature. Laozi's heartless theory of heaven and earth seems to contain the meaning that heaven and earth are different from people. Then, Hu Shi said: "goodness is the most common in human nature, so heaven and earth are different from others, that is, there is no goodness in heaven and earth." This unifies two different versions. Finally, Hu pushed the concept of Laozi as he understood it, saying, "This concept of Laozi broke the fallacy of the similarity between man and nature in ancient times and laid the foundation for later natural science." 1922, Liang Qichao also thought that Laozi's words showed his wavering belief in heaven and opened Xunzi's thought of heaven.

Explanation 2

Mr. Zhong Tai's The History of China Philosophy, Volume I, Chapter III has an attachment, Lao Zi's Bad Heaven and Earth, Taking Everything as a Grass Dog Solution (First Edition 1929), which refutes this. As the saying goes, "I read the whole book of Laozi, knowing that its words are thorough and not conclusive." It will be expounded from three aspects: first, from the linguistic point of view, the so-called "benevolent, human also" is to seek its etymology, not equivalence. "The word' person' is an abstract noun, not a concrete noun. Therefore, it is ok to cultivate people's kindness, but it cannot change people. " According to Hu Shizhi, we can only say "non-benevolence", but not "ruthlessness". What's more, under this sentence, there is a saying that "saints are ruthless and people are dogs". Can't it be understood as "saints are not people"? Secondly, judging from the whole book of Laozi, "Skynet is long, sparse but not leaking" and "Heaven has no relatives and always cooperates with good people" are all words of Laozi. Therefore, the evidence is not enough to conclude that Laozi broke the fallacy of the unity of man and nature. Third, Hu Shizhi mistakenly believed Wang Bi's statement of "one straw dogs". Wang Bizhi said that straw and dogs are two different things, that animals don't grow grass in the sky, and animals eat grass; Heaven doesn't make dogs, but people eat people. It contains the meaning that everything in the sky is dust. In fact, a dog is a thing. "Zhuangzi and Tian Yun" contains the words of Shi Jin: "The husband and dog are not Kerwin Chen, but the face is filled with embroidered words, and the corpse is willing to fast. And he's already in Kerwin Chen, and Monkey has practiced his first spine, and Su has taken it. " When pigs are tied up but don't sacrifice, they are put in boxes and covered with beautiful embroidered towels. The corpse wants to fast and take it to the altar. After the sacrifice, it will be abandoned, pedestrians will step on its head and back, and firewood collectors will pick it up and burn it. "Treating everything as straw dogs" is the development process of treating everything as straw dogs, respecting it when used, abandoning it when used, and letting it flourish until it declines. This is naturally unkind. "Grass dog" is a kind of dog-shaped grass, which is used to seek happiness and eliminate disasters when diseases are prevalent. At this time, you need to dress up. After prayers, worshippers can enjoy sacrifices. Even if pigs are abandoned, people will step on ox carts and burn them as firewood. We can look at the records in the Han, Wei and Jin dynasties to understand. "Huainan Ziqi Custom" said that when pigs and soil Kong Lung were made, they were all decorated with bluish yellow, embroidered with embroidery and wrapped in red lines. The bodies want to wear pure black sacrificial clothes, and doctors wear hats to meet them. Used up, the earth dragon is just a pile of soil, and the grass dog is just a pile of soil. Who cares about them? Xu Shen said in his bet, "A straw dogs, a bundle of straw for a dog, is a reward. Tulong, please rain. " Obviously, straw dogs is made of grass and looks like a dog, while Tulong is made of mud and looks like a dragon. Straw dogs is used to thank the blessing, and the earth dragon is used to beg for rain. "Talking about the Mountain" also said that "pigs wait for them to come and have fun". "Tan Lin" also said: "If the earth dragon is dry and the pig is sick, be an emperor." This is even more clear. One of the great uses of straw dogs is to sacrifice to God and seek happiness when the plague is prevalent. At this time, its status is like an emperor. Naturally throw it away after use. Before the sacrifice, the status of pigs was respected and extremely glorious. Immediately after the sacrifice, it was abandoned and the car burned, as mentioned above. In the propaganda of Zhou Weizhi in Three Kingdoms, it is also interesting to show the three processes of pig sacrifice by saying "three dreams". It is said that Zhou Xuan is good at divination, so someone deliberately came to test him, saying that he dreamed of a straw dogs, and Zhou Xuan said that he would get delicious food. Soon after the trip, I really met a sumptuous meal. Later, he said that he dreamed about straw dogs again. Zhou Xuan said, "Be careful, you will fall off the car and break your foot." As he said, soon. The third time, he said that he dreamed of a straw dogs. Zhou Xuan said, "Pay special attention, your house will catch fire." The house really caught fire soon. The person who asked later said, "Actually, I didn't dream about straw dogs three times. Why is it so effective? " Zhou Xuan said: "This is what the gods told you to say. It is no different from a real dream." The questioner said, "I told you three times that I dreamed of a straw dogs. Why is the result so different? " Zhou Xuan said, "A straw dogs is a sacrifice to God. At the beginning of the sacrifice, the sacrifice can be divided into people, so you get delicious food After the sacrifice, straw dogs was run over by a car, so he fell off the car and broke his foot. Then I will take the broken pig to the fire, so it will catch fire. " Xuan Yue: "Dogs are sacrifices to God. So you start dreaming when you have more food. After the sacrifice, the pig will be trampled to death by the car, so in my dream, I fell off the car and broke my foot. When a dog gets into a chariot, he will think it is firewood, so he is afraid of fire after dreaming. " These data clearly explain the shape, material, use and use process of pigs. This process is a natural process. It's expensive to use it, and it's discarded when it's used. Everything in the world is like this. "Heaven and earth are heartless, and everything is straw dogs", that is, heaven and earth do not show benevolence, but just let everything go through the process from glory to abandonment like straw dogs. Explanation 3 Another anonymous note said: Defeating its sharpness and resolving its dispute means that heaven and earth are ruthless; Sharp and unyielding, puzzled, it is said that saints are ruthless.