Theory of heaven
The main category of Laozi's thought is "Tao", and the word "Tao" has appeared 73 times in Laozi's book, and the theme of Laozi's book is that heaven is natural and inaction. Tao is the initial state of chaos, which is quiet and self-correcting. It is the beginning of heaven and earth, the mother of all things and the root of all things. Tao is often nameless, inaction and inaction. Like water, it is the highest good not to compete with everything for profit, but to overcome the strong with the weak. Tao is unspeakable, and human senses cannot directly perceive, see, hear and hold it. Tao is not only the noumenon of the universe, but also the law of all things and the criterion of life. Confucianism regards heaven, earth and man as "three", while Laozi regards Tao, heaven, earth and man as "four". The "Big Four" added Tao to the "Big Three", which opened an extremely lofty and imaginative thinking space for the framework of China's cultural thought. Tao comes from metaphysics, but it runs through metaphysics; Moreover, in the process of infiltration, there is no room for the creator with will and purpose, such as Tiandi. 2500 years ago, Laozi's Tao was a great invention on the basis of fundamentally transforming the original Taoist theory.
Portrait of Laozi
As the origin and noumenon of the existence of all things in heaven and earth, Tao created and achieved all things in heaven and earth. Tao's achievement of everything in the world is not intentional, completely unintentional and completely natural. Laozi said, "Man should be a teacher of land, land should be a teacher of heaven, heaven should be a teacher of Taoism, and Taoism is natural." "Taoism is natural", and natural people are complacent. Nature is a description of the state and behavior of Tao, rather than a more substantial nature besides Tao. "Being born without anything, walking without anything", everything goes with the flow, and everything goes with the flow, which is the nature of Tao. The essence of Tao is natural inaction, but it is this inaction that makes it possible; It is precisely because of inaction that everything has been achieved. This phenomenon, highly summarized by Laozi's philosophy, is "doing nothing without doing anything".
"Doing nothing without doing anything" is not only the great virtue and great use of Tao, but also the most fundamental rule governing all things in the world, the fundamental rule for individuals to settle down and live, and the so-called "truth". "If you don't live, you can live forever" and "If you feel that you are not big at last, you can become bigger", which is the truth of everything in the world. "The husband is independent, so the world can't compete with him", "After his body, he has it first, while outside his body" and "Because of his selflessness, he can become a private person", which is the fundamental law for an individual to settle down. "Governing by doing nothing" is not only the application and principle of Taoism, but also "Daoism" and the fundamental means and method of governing the country by Wuhou. Therefore, "I do nothing and the people are above, I am quiet and the people are above, I have nothing and the people are rich, and I have no desire and the people are simple."
dialectical thinking
Laozi believes that everything in the world exists through comparison. Beauty and ugliness, good and evil, existence, difficulty and length are all interdependent. There is only one thing, right and wrong, good and evil. On the surface, these two opposing aspects are opposite to each other, but in fact they are mutually contained and infiltrated. "Misfortune is a blessing; Blessed, cursed. " Everything is you have me, I have you, and nothing is static. In the 40th chapter of Tao Te Ching, Laozi put forward "the movement against Tao". In other words, when things develop to a certain extent, they will inevitably transform in the opposite direction. As the saying goes, "if things are strong, they will be old, and if soldiers are strong, they will die." At the same time, the development of things and the transformation of things into opposites are not achieved overnight, and it needs to go through a process of continuous accumulation of quantity. "Hemu was born in a milli; Nine-story platform, starting with tired soil; A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. "
Social theory
Laozi believes that the essence of Tao is natural inaction, which is the fundamental law of all things in the universe and the basic code of conduct that human beings should abide by. Based on the principle of inaction, Lao Tzu opposes human actions, because actions destroy human primitive nature and simplicity, cause the division of personality, and bring social evils such as hypocrisy, cunning, greed and evil. "Avenue waste, righteousness; When wisdom comes out, there is a big holiday; Six parents are not harmonious and have filial piety; The country is in chaos and there are loyal ministers. " There is a way in the world, and everything goes with the flow. Don't flaunt benevolence and righteousness, but have your own. When it is advertised as benevolence and righteousness, it means that benevolence and righteousness no longer exist. From this, Lao Tzu put forward the ideas of "abandoning wisdom and deception" and "abandoning advantage and cleverness", arguing that "a small country with few people should make the people do what they can without using it" and "although they have boats, they have nothing to take; Although there are soldiers, there is nothing to say; Make people use the rope. " This is a retro idea. In line with this social ideal, Lao Tzu also advocates that softness is weakness, that is, "the strong are weak", "the world is not weaker than water, and the strong can attack first", and then he advocates "being good as water", thinking that the perfect personality should have the same mentality and behavior as water, "deal with the evil of all", go where others don't want to go, do what others don't want to do, and persistently bear the burden.
Literary achievements
Laozi's articles are literary and have a great influence on later literature. First of all, Tao Te Ching played a highly specific literary and social role and played an important role in people's understanding of natural phenomena and social life at that time. Literary works are the image reflection of social life. Good literary works actually represent various scenes in natural and social phenomena, reflect the economy, politics and culture in a certain historical period, describe the mental outlook of different classes, strata and characters, reflect people's various realistic relationships, and enable readers to gain various correct understandings about history and reality, society and life. Laozi has made great achievements in these aspects.
Secondly, Lao Zi's achievements in writing skills. The Tao Te Ching has only more than 5,000 words, but it contains such rich contents and runs through it, thanks to the author's superb writing skills. Laozi's literary skills can be summarized as: 1. His prose is concise, short and pithy, and is good at vividly describing natural phenomena and social life. Later generations divided the Tao Te Ching into 8 1 chapters, and each chapter had several words, ranging from more than 80 words to 20 words. But it's like a string of sweet pearls, where one sentence keeps making mistakes and rhymes in the middle to increase the musicality of the article. Second, skillfully use metaphor and duality. Clever metaphors are as follows: Chapter 5 "Heaven and Earth are heartless to all things", and Chapter 26 "Pay more attention to roots and be calm and impetuous"; Clever use of antithetical sentences, such as the first chapter "The mother of all things is the beginning of the nameless world" and the second chapter "Teaching without words". Each sentence embodies the author's strong thoughts and feelings, which is the result of Lao Zi's clever use of metaphor and duality. Thirdly, Laozi's article is easy to understand and not "implicit", but we should find its beauty from his language use. Fourthly, Laozi's articles are good at explaining the natural law of mutual transformation of things with contradictions. When making sentences, he skillfully reveals the nature of natural phenomena and social phenomena in words, such as whether there are similarities and differences, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, difficulty, up and down, back and forth, true and false, and so on. Five, Lao Tzu's article is mainly emotional prose. From the Six Classics to the contention of a hundred schools of thought, all articles are reasoning tools, and Laozi is no exception, but the plot structure and expression form of Laozi's articles are unique. Sixth, Lao Tzu emphasizes literary talent. One truth is often repeatedly demonstrated by several synonyms, and then he makes progress because of his short language, which is clear and not repeated. The form of Lao Zi's article is not "the article must be made first" from its content; Laozi's article does not seek to be empty and delicate, but based on facts, narrates arguments and makes appropriate remarks. The eighty-one chapter of Tao Te Ching echoes clearly from beginning to end, without confusion, which embodies the performance that the structure obeys the theme.