1
Laozi, also known as Tao Te Ching, contains biographies of its author Laozi in Historical Records, Laozi and Biography of Zhuangzi and Shen Han, but its wording is quite questionable. It is said that his surname is Li Minger. Laozi tells the meaning of the old gentleman-he is the oldest among the pre-Qin philosophers, and Confucius once asked him about the "ceremony".
There are 81 chapters and 5,000 words in Laozi, which has always been interpreted and studied. In 1970s, two silk books Laozi were unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, which caused a sensation and further promoted the related research.
In the annotation of Laozi, Wang Bi, a metaphysical scholar, was once the most important one (there is another special book; You can also see it in the book Wang Bi Ji edited by Lou Yulie. Now Chen Guying's comments, translations and comments on Laozi are more popular.
Laozi thinks that the noumenon of the world is "nothing", "nature" or "Tao", which is the source of an unclear language. "Tao can be Tao, not extraordinary; Famous, very famous. " (Chapter 1) Everything in the world comes from this place, and nothing comes out of it. He advocates doing nothing, not arguing, returning to simplicity and letting nature take its course.
Laozi's so-called "Tao" is sometimes used to refer to the law, "the movement against Tao" (Chapter 40), and the movement of things always turns to the opposite. Based on this, there are many dialectical propositions, such as doing nothing (chapter 37), relying on luck (chapter 58), being weak is better than being strong (chapter 36), being good as running water (chapter 8), and taking what you need.
Lao Tzu stressed that we must never break the law, and doing anything is nothing more than asking for trouble. He believes that the best state is like a baby, without any intention, very natural, but with unlimited development prospects.
In order to confront the reality of inequality between the rich and the poor at that time, Lao Tzu advocated returning to the ancient times of small countries and few people and living a poor but equal life. This idea is understandable, but it is actually impossible.
In Laozi, short aphorisms are often used, and there is a lot of room for interpretation, so it is difficult to settle on one respect. This is its charm.
2
There are fifty-two copies of Zhuangzi Hanshu Yiwenzhi, and now there are thirty-three copies, seven of which are written by Zhuang Zhou himself, and the rest (fifteen are foreign articles and eleven are miscellaneous articles) are all articles learned after our school, and may also be mixed with chapters from other schools.
In the pre-Qin period, hundred schools of thought contended with each other, on the one hand, they fought with each other, on the other hand, they infiltrated each other, and the factions split and developed. The most famous annotation books are the annotations of Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang in Wei and Jin Dynasties. There are also detailed notes published later, such as Guo Qingfan's Zhuangzi Collection and Wang Xianqian's Zhuangzi Collection.
Modern Cao Chuji's Notes on Zhuangzi and Chen Guying's Notes on Modern Zhuangzi are more suitable for readers.
Zhuangzi's name is Zhou (about 369 ~ 286 BC), a Mongolian in the Song Dynasty during the Warring States Period, contemporary with Liang and Mencius. He used to be an official of the lacquer garden, ranking the lowest among the philosophers of the Warring States period. His life is also recorded in Historical Records and Biographies of Lao Zhuang and Shen Han.
Zhuangzi's thoughts are mainly ontology, circulation theory and agnosticism. He advocates inaction in politics, and his attitude towards life is the so-called "knowing that you can't do it", which is just the opposite of Confucianism's "knowing that you can't do it".
Zhuangzi's exposure and criticism of social darkness is extremely profound, and his pursuit of spiritual freedom has greatly influenced ancient intellectuals, which is still playing a role today. Anti-simplicity and spiritual independence are the essence of Zhuangzi's thought, which are concentrated in Happy Wandering and Horseshoe.
Zhuangzi Xiaoyao embodies Zhuangzi's basic thoughts, but he didn't elaborate on what Xiaoyao is, but wrote a set of fables, which mentioned "endless travel", "no waiting", "no self", "no work" and "no name". In order to achieve these five realms, one must be "not satisfied with things" and not pursue details.
"Free travel" should not only break the shackles of external conditions, but also break the shackles of self-body and mind, pursue elegant and refined life interests, and achieve complete transcendence.
Among the pre-Qin philosophers, Zhuangzi is the most like an artist. Zhuangzi's literary achievement is also the highest, which is manifested in:
First, the art of fable.
Zhuangzi "regards the world as gloomy, and can't use Zhuang language", so he "takes surprise as rambling words, tautology as truth, and fables as wide as possible". There is a fable in the essay, which says, "Fable 19, restate 17 (or should be eleven), and predict the sunrise, harmony with the sky."
Zhuangzi's so-called "fable" refers to what he didn't say directly, including the fable in today's sense; "tautology" refers to solemn words, that is, people who directly discuss the original intention; "Yan Yan" is the so-called fragmented words, that is, those words interspersed between fables and tautology.
The most noteworthy of these three is fable. Before "Zhuangzi", the fable in the works had a relatively small weight, which was nothing more than understanding, even if it was deleted. Zhuangzi takes fables as the main body of the article and must not be deleted.
In the past, fables often borrowed folk stories and historical legends; Zhuangzi's fables are basically his own creation. The fables in the past are generally realistic, while the fables in Zhuangzi are full of romance.
In the past, fables only contained the synopsis of the story, while the fables in Zhuangzi contained characters, actions, speeches and portraits, which were even quite close to the novel, and were very literary, among which Stealing Feet, Autumn Water and Saying Sword were particularly famous.
There are many famous images in the fable of Zhuangzi, such as the flying Dapeng ("Eat, Enjoy"), the skilled worker ("Master of Health"), the man with rickets ("Sheng Da"), the bullet magpie in the village ("Mountain Tree", which means that if you forget your shape, there will be future trouble) and the historical painting ("Tian Zifang").
Rickets is hereditary.
Second, rich imagination and flexible structure.
The article "Tianxia" said: "With nonsense, absurd words and unprovoked cliff words, sometimes they are not arrogant, sometimes they are not impetuous ... although their words are uneven and impressive." This is a good self-assessment.
Zhuangzi's articles are often imaginary, broad-minded, unrestrained, humorous and weird, with a deformed beauty. For example, Dapeng flies high, Beihai is ethereal, feet are stolen, and Zhuang Zhou become a butterfly. The author does not write according to the original face of life, but makes strange and exaggerated images, thus strongly expressing his views.
Zhuangzi's style of writing is open and closed, and there is no cliche and no trace of transfer from beginning to end. His thinking jumps and he opens and closes for no reason, which has a strong artistic appeal.
Third, lyric writing.
Speaking of the characters in this school, they are kind and enthusiastic; Criticizing rulers or criticizing other schools of thought are all laughing and cursing, and they are all articles. Trees, fish, butterflies, fishermen, wild horses, turtles and so on can all express his character. Articles such as horseshoes and jackets can be regarded as lyric sketches.
Mr. Lu Xun said that Zhuangzi's article "The wind of Wang Yang is graceful and restrained, and the works of the late Zhou philosophers should not be the first".
Zhuangzi's thought has influenced China's ideological circle for two thousand years. Unhappy scholars are cynical, do not cooperate with rulers, are pessimistic and passive, and laugh at themselves, which often comes from Zhuangzi's ideological nutrition.
three
Huainanzi, formerly known as Huainan Lie Hong, has 2 1 piece, which is considered to be the work of Liu An, the king of Huainan in the early Western Han Dynasty. Actually, it was written by a group of his public guests. Gaoyou, who first annotated Huai Nan Zi, mentioned eight of them, including Su Fei and Li Shang.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there was still a legacy of the Warring States. Great men like to train scholars and train a group of wandering intellectuals to do things for him, including writing books and expanding their influence.
The big problem facing the early Han Dynasty was years of war, and it was urgent to recuperate, develop production and recover. Therefore, Laozi's Taoist thought is very timely, and it is combined with the legendary Yellow Emperor, which is called "Huang Lao". Its essence is "Taoism is natural, and people's will is the will" (Historical Records, Cao Can Family).
Huai Nan Zi certainly stresses nature and inaction, but there are some developments and changes here. He also said that we should attach importance to people and think that "time changes make things happen", so we should "support things at any time" (Qi Customs Xun), which is of great evolutionary significance and completely different from the passivity of Laozi and Zhuangzi. But in theory, we still insist on the quietness without desire and the harmony between sex and Tao, which is in the same strain as Laozi's thought, including the cloud:
The so-called real person, sex is in line with the Tao. So, if there is nothing, it is actually Xu Ruo. If you don't know anything else, you can understand Tai Su, and you can swim in the mystery of heaven and earth. Be at a loss and pretend to be outside the dirt, but enjoy nothing, vast as a sea of smoke, mechanical knowledge in the heart, so life and death are also big and unchanged. (Huainanzi Spiritual Cultivation)
Life is quiet, and the nature of heaven is also; Feeling and then moving, the harm of sex is also, things arrive and God should respond, knowing and moving. Knowledge is connected with things, but it is so hateful; I hate formation, but I know I was lured outside. I can't be my enemy, but God destroyed me. ("Huai Nan Zi Yuan Dao Xun")
The book Huainanzi is rich in content, and Hu Shi paid special attention to its positive side and spoke highly of it. He thought that "Huainanzi's philosophy is not only the best representative of Taoism, but also a great end of China's ancient philosophy ... It can indeed be regarded as the first and most wonderful philosophy after Zhou and Qin Dynasties. Among them, the true meaning of inaction, the truth of evolution and the spirit of reform are extremely valuable.
Unfortunately, after King Huainan was punished, all his scholars were killed. This valuable philosophy has become a traitor's philosophical school, and Dong Zhongshu, who is "the same in heaven and the same in Tao", has made philosophy authentic. "
There are many annotated editions of Huai Nan Zi, the most important of which are written by two scholars, Liu Wendian (Huainan Lie Hong Ji Jie Zhonghua Book Company 1997 edition) and Ning He (Huainan Ji Jie Zhonghua Book Company 1998 edition).
four
Liezi was written by Lieyu Kou, and Zhuangzi mentioned him many times, saying that he "sailed with the wind, Ling Ran was good, and returned to the fifth day after ten days" (Zhuangzi Xiaoyao); Eight examples were recorded in History of Han Dynasty, but the book was later lost. It was not until the Eastern Jin Dynasty that Zhang Zhan suddenly provided it, and he also wrote notes for it.
Due to the suspicious origin, it is generally believed that the text of Liezi, which has been circulated so far, is forged. The forger is probably this Zhang Zhan, or someone a little earlier than him. It should have been after the discovery of bamboo books in 279 (the fifth year of Xianning), because the third volume of Liezi is obviously based on many materials in the Biography of Muzhu.
Liezi has some Buddhist concepts of reincarnation. Qian Daxin, a Confucian scholar in the Qing Dynasty, said, "Liezi Tian Rui": Lin Ban said, "Death is opposite to life, so death means knowing that there is no life. "Liezi was first published in the Jin Dynasty, fearing that the Jin people would rely on it." ("Ten Driving Records", Volume 8, "The Theory of Stone Reincarnation") This statement comes straight to the point, which is the most easy to understand and desirable. Or, in general, the forger should be from A Jin.
Of course, Liezi handed down from ancient times also integrates some remaining fragments of Liezi that Jin people can still see, and some places are quite close to a hash; There are more than one or two forgers involved in the rewriting, so the ideas in the book are quite complicated.
Zhang Zhansheng was born in the middle of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Emperor Xiaowu was then assistant minister of Zhongshu and Guangluxun. He annotated Zhuangzi and Wen Zi, and was also proficient in medicine. He is the author of "Essentials of Health Preservation" and "Secrets of Prolonging the Year". There is no biography in the Book of Jin, but he is mentioned in the Biography of Fan Ning. That person should be the last finisher of Liezi, a miscellaneous fake book.
Unnecessary worry
Liezi has a great influence on China people's thoughts and is closely related to literature. Liezi was widely used by bookstores around the world in the1930s (followed by photocopies of Shanghai Bookstore and Zhonghua Bookstore). The new one is Interpretation of Column Collection by Yang Bojun (Zhonghua Book Company, 1979 edition).
The new ideas in Liezi are concentrated in six volumes of Li Ming and seven volumes of Yang Zhu.
"Force" in "Force Destiny" refers to human efforts, and "destiny" refers to destiny, that is, "the elements are fixed in an inevitable period" (Zhang Zhan's note).
In the first paragraph of the article "Force Destiny", a debate was arranged between the two sides of "Force" and "Destiny", and finally "Destiny" won-just like a conversation. The following are some stories that repeatedly prove that fate is doomed. No matter how hard people try, the outcome has long been doomed by "fate": "I don't know why, life is also. Today, I am very confused. If there is, I will do what I want, and I will not do what I want. As the days go by, whoever knows the reason will get married. "
"Life and death pretends to be poor and self-sufficient. Hate those who die young, those who don't know how to live or die; People who complain about poverty don't know the time. When you are not afraid of death, you are not worried about poverty. When you are safe, you will know. " Man's efforts will never change his destiny.
In other words, not only the result is doomed, but also all the efforts in the process are doomed. Therefore, the only correct attitude is to accept the fate and accept the final outcome, including poverty and death. A man who can calmly understand life is a master of Tao.
The ancients before China also talked about "fate", but thought that we could strive to change it, such as doing good deeds and accumulating virtues, so as to strive for a good ending.
Its potential premise is that its own god pays attention to human performance and treats people appropriately accordingly, which shows that this "fate" has some religious and moral significance; Cao's Li Gang wrote "The Theory of Destiny" (Mao Zedong's Selected Works, Volume 53), although he also talked about "managing chaos and transporting it; Poor, life is also; It is also time to be noble and humble, but it also emphasizes that "the beauty of wood in the forest will be destroyed by the wind; When piled up on the shore, the water will surge; The line is higher than the people, and the public will not. The former supervisor (Jane) is not far away, and the car is following.
However, people with lofty ideals and benevolence still have no regrets, and if they do, they will lose. Why? Will be famous for ambition ... Tao will be abolished and life will be cheap. Are only gentlemen ashamed of this? Guy knows it's a blessing for him. "
Although doomed to failure, people with lofty ideals still struggle. I try my best and have a positive attitude when I am not completely resigned. The so-called "fate" in Liezi is a natural law, which will never change because of people's will and efforts. So it is negative to advocate inaction.
Life is full of unpredictable accidents. Calling unexplained contingency and the result of all joint efforts "fate" and claiming to be content with this fate is indeed an attitude towards life that is enough to comfort oneself and achieve psychological balance. Tao Yuanming, one of the Jin writers, talked about this conclusion in their works, which had great influence. Today, this idea and formulation are still very popular.