Tao Te Ching, also known as Laozi, Classic of Moral Truth and Laozi's 5,000 Articles with 5,000 Words, is the work of Laozi (Li Er and Bai Yang) in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the Qin Dynasty, Lu's Notes on the Spring and Autumn Annals was called Shangzhijing, but in the early Han Dynasty it was directly called Laozi. This book has been honored as Tao Te Ching since Emperor Han Jing, and was later translated into Sanskrit by Emperor Taizong since he was named Old Gigi Lai. Tang Gaozong respected Tao Te Ching as Shang Jing, and when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty respected it as Tao Te Ching.
? Introduction to Laozi:
Lao Zi, surnamed Li Minger, is called Bo Yang. Huaxia nationality, a native of Qurenli in Chugu County, lived between 57 1 and 47 1 years ago. He was a great philosopher, thinker and founder of Taoist school in ancient China, and was honored as the ancestor of Li by the emperor of Tang Dynasty. Laozi is a world cultural celebrity and one of the world's 100 historical celebrities, including Tao Te Ching (also known as Laozi). The essence of his works is simple dialectics, which advocates inaction, and his theory has a far-reaching impact on the development of China's philosophy. In Taoism, Laozi is regarded as the ancestor of Taoism. Laozi and Zhuangzi of later generations are also called Zhuang zi.
Before leaving Hangu Pass, Lao Zi wrote a book of 5,000 words, also known as Tao Te Ching or Tao Te Ching. Tao Te Ching, The Book of Changes and The Analects of Confucius are considered to be the three most influential masterpieces in China. Tao Te Ching is divided into two volumes, ***8 1. The first 37 chapters are the first, and the last 38 chapters are the next. The ideological structure of the book is: Tao is the "body" of virtue, and virtue is the "use" of Tao. The full text is about five thousand words.
Tao Te Ching was later named. At first, this book was called Laozi, but it didn't have the name of Tao Te Ching. Its completion date was controversial in the past, but it is still uncertain. However, according to the date of "Laozi" on Guodian bamboo slips unearthed in 1993, it was written at least in the middle and early Warring States period. For the collation of Laozi on Chu bamboo slips, see Sixin Ding's Collation of Laozi on Guodian Chu bamboo slips.
Laozi used Tao to explain the evolution of all things in the universe, thinking that "Tao gives birth to one, two, two, three and three things" and "Tao" is "the fate of a husband is natural", so "man should be in the earth, the earth should be in the sky, the sky should be in the Tao, and the Tao should be natural". In addition to the simple materialistic viewpoint, Laozi also contains a lot of simple dialectical viewpoints, such as that everything has two sides, and the "movement against Tao" can be transformed from opposition. In addition, there are a lot of people-oriented thoughts in the book: "Heaven has more than enough to make up for it, humanity is insufficient, and loss is not enough to serve it"; "People's hunger is as much as food tax"; "People die lightly, but they live on it"; "people are not afraid of death, why should they be afraid of death?" His theory had a far-reaching impact on the development of China's philosophy.
? Brief introduction of Tao Te Ching:
There are different opinions on the theme of Tao Te Ching. From different angles, Laozi presents different faces. The mainstream school for more than two thousand years is political philosophy or management philosophy, for example, the legalist Han Feizi understands it from this angle. Han Feizi is a representative of Legalism, and his theoretical basis is Tao Te Ching. The same is true of Wang Bi in the Three Kingdoms period, who interprets Lao Zi from the perspective of management. Others interpret Laozi from a military perspective, such as Sun Tzu's Art of War; Some people say that this is the way to survive, to compromise, to be soft; Laozi's official seal sentence on the river of Tao Te Ching interprets Tao Te Ching from the perspective of health preservation, so as to cultivate one's vitality and gain enlightenment. From the immortal's point of view, Taoism in China originated from the Three Kingdoms, and The Old Xiangzi Jules written by Zhang Lu was a classic of the later Pentecostalism.
The ideological explanation of Tao Te Ching Lu Chunqiu Parr used a word as its definition, that is, the word "soft". Tao Te Ching sublimated the nationality of the Chinese nation through Zhouyi and created a complete ideal system with "softness" as the core. Three key words are used to summarize the ideological system of Tao Te Ching: the first is "sex", that is, the true nature of things, the natural nature and the innate nature. When things grow as they are, they reach the best state of life; The second is "inaction", not tossing, conforming to the natural nature of things. "inaction" is not doing nothing, but conforming to the natural nature of things. This is the third word: "Tao", "Tao" is the law, and conforming to the natural nature is the fundamental law; Laozi's three key words are actually one-nature.
? Tao is the generator of all things in the universe, and it existed before the creation of heaven and earth. In Laozi, "Tao gives birth to one, life gives birth to two, life gives birth to three, and life gives birth to everything". Everything is from small to large, from scratch, from less to more. "One" can be interpreted as vitality and refers to the most basic substance. It can be understood that there is no matter in the world, only mysterious energy called "Tao" produces basic particles and vitality. Life two, vitality split, divided into yin and yang. Two gives birth to three, and yin and yang combine to form a neutral qi. Everything is born, and harmony produces everything. "Everything is negative and holds Yang", and everything is born of Yin and the shadow is Yang. This theory had a far-reaching impact on China, and Lao Tzu had never discussed the origin of the universe before. The idea of "Tao gives birth to one" puts forward that the universe is generated by the most basic shapeless energy and is divided step by step. This thought had a profound influence on the world view of China's traditional culture.
Laozi believes that invisible produces tangible things, and tangible things split into more complex things, thus producing the whole tangible world. Tao is the first driving force of the universe. It has never disappeared since it was born. It exists in all things. Because Tao always has the vitality of "one", everything can develop, grow and succeed just by adapting to this energy. Laozi believes that every tangible thing can develop by using his inner invisible cosmic force, that is, "Tao".
Nature is the nature or natural state of things, and the external expression of the natural nature of things is called nature. "No learning, almighty nature. Natural people have nothing to say, nothing to say. " Of course it is. Everything is innate, and the natural display is the essence of this thing. According to Taoism, "sex" is the best state of all things, and "Tao" is expressed through the "sex" of all things.
? Tao in Tao Te Ching can be understood in connection with virtue. Tao Te Ching mainly discusses: "Tao" and "morality", and "Tao" is not only the natural way of the universe, but also the method of personal practice, that is, cultivation; "Virtue" is not the usual morality or virtue, but a monk's special world outlook, methodology and way of dealing with people. The general part puts forward the methods of monasticism, mostly discussing the "virtue" of monasticism. The Tao Te Ching summarizes the contents of the full text in three words.
The content of Tao Te Ching is difficult to understand, but the understanding of its content in different versions of Tao Te Ching is quite different. For example, the contents of moral classics are described as ways to treat people, manage families, manage countries and so on. Laozi's original intention should be to teach people how to practice Buddhism. Morality is the foundation, and Taoism is the sublimation of morality. Without the foundation of virtue, you are likely to fail in dealing with people, managing your family and governing the country, and you will not be able to "cultivate Buddhism." Therefore, cultivating "virtue" is to create a good external environment for monasticism, which may also be needed by people; Being a monk requires a quiet mind and a detached life, which is also indispensable for virtue. The moral part of Tao Te Ching accounts for a large part of the Confucian classics, which is the basis of monasticism. Everyone has different views on the contents of Tao Te Ching.
At all times, there are countless people who study and annotate the Tao Te Ching, and they have different opinions from the perspectives of health, philosophy, politics, art of war and natural science. These understandings are both one-sided and reasonable. "Tao" is the simplicity of the whole. From a certain point of view, it is obviously one-sided to treat "Wan Qi Gate" as a local thing. This is a blind man touching an elephant. On the other hand, "Tao" generates everything and is also included in everything. Tao is in things, things are in Tao, and everything leads to Tao through different routes. Understanding from this aspect also has its reasonable side.
? According to the concept of western philosophy, some people unilaterally interpret Tao as "thing", "god" or "law". These explanations are not in line with the original meaning of Lao Tzu. Tao is not only a tangible substance, a thoughtful spirit, a rational law, but also an invisible and intangible cosmic source, which leads to all this. Material, spirit and law are all derivatives of Tao. Tao is inherently infinite, and it is the ancestor of nature, the essence of all things and the source of all things in the universe. Only by correctly understanding "Dao" can we correctly understand "De", thus taking it as the key to correctly understand the whole book of Tao Te Ching.
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. Its influence is also various, including politics, culture, science, religion and so on. According to incomplete statistics, since the pre-Qin period, there have been more than 3,000 kinds of works on the study and annotation of the Old Book, among which no less than 1000 kinds are representative, which shows the great influence of the Tao Te Ching. I just want to tell you so much about who wrote the Tao Te Ching.