Chapter 35 a dime

Mencius made it a major career in his life to force Yang and Mo.On the one hand, people with ideas but no system always need opponents in debates to clarify their thoughts; The popularity of it has made the gentleman intolerable. The "dissent" is from the standpoint of Mencius. He saw that the wisdom of Confucius was ignored by ignorant people, and the words of Yang and Mo filled the world instead, and he was very angry. "Yang Mo's way is endless, and Confucius' way is not." In order to fight Yang and Mo, Mencius sawed off an inch of the threshold, saying that as long as he criticizes Yang and Mo, it is considered a certificate of honor, and he immediately joins the group and becomes a saint.

Yang Zhu's famous proposition is to "pull out one maori to benefit the world and not do it."Hearing this sentence, not only Mencius, but also ordinary people will inevitably become angry.Think about it, we are always ready to give benefits to others, and we are always expecting to get some benefits from others. If we follow Yang Zhu's idea, where do we give benefits and where do we get benefits?Yang Zhu's school, later generations summed it up as "valuing life and valuing oneself", valuing self and despising things, and valuing life does not care about merit.He believes that human life is his own, and he is an atheist who believes that there is only one life.Then, the only thing, whether it is wealth or power, is not worth exchanging; because those things will harm the body and sex, and if they are exchanged, it is equivalent to beheading for a hat-this is obviously an extreme proposition, and it is contrary to common sense. do not match.Common sense is that life is life. Although the balance between personal life and society is not perfect, it cannot be held to one end in a fit of anger. The pursuit of interests is not the same as trading life, and it is often necessary to give up some freedom.

Yang Zhu's words are really expressive.For example, he regards the pursuit of interests as something that hurts his nature, which is related to the situation at that time.The views held by the philosophers of the Warring States Period were different, but none of them believed that the social conditions at that time were acceptable.It is a bit surprising that thousands of scholars are besieging society from all directions.Modern political scientists have imagined what it was like before the advent of centralized power, when people lived independently without any agreement between them.Some pre-Qin scholars declared that state—if it ever existed—was simply an ideal world.This kind of thinking is inferred from reality, and it is naive in itself, but Yang Zhu and many others do not have the economic ambitions of Confucianism, and are afraid of divergence, so they can't be provoked and can hide, it seems to be the simplest choose.At that time, the two schools of thought—Legalism and Confucianism—both focused on how to manage the people so that they could be used by the state. A theory that is not used by adults and gentlemen. "Pull out one Mao to benefit the world and not do it" is a kind of rebellion.Legalists said, you contribute to the monarch, and the monarch will benefit you, Yang Zhu shook his head; Confucians said, as long as you return to benevolence, you can make a good emperor and live a noble and happy life, Yang Zhu also shook his head.Like an obstinate child who makes up his mind not to do one thing, he doesn’t want candy or fruit, and he doesn’t want the whole world if you give him.People may call it "extreme individualism", which is a bit misunderstood.The value of Yang Zhu's proposition lies in that it is the theoretical germination point of individualism, not in the actual policy.People's lives belong to themselves, which is the simplest and most often forgotten truth, because so many forces are committed to making everyone forget this truth, and they always succeed-look at the philosophers of the Warring States Period, who has the last laugh?

Mencius thought that Yang Zhu's proposition made people no different from animals.Mencius is right to regard Yang Zhuism as a social theory.As for the reason behind it, Mencius pretended not to see it. Originally, one of his jobs was to ignore that reason.In the other direction, Han Fei directly said that people like Yang Zhu should be killed, because even if it is a top-quality horse, he would not move forward if he was driven, he would not stop when he was strangled, and he would not stop if he was told to go east. Going west, what's the use of keeping it?It has taught other horses to fail.The monarch hangs good fields, beautiful houses, high ranks and rich salary, just to make people work hard for him. How can Yang Zhu give his life to the officials?If you respect such a person, everyone will learn badly.

Han Fei also spoke well.Also belonging to Yang Zhu's school, there is a man named Zi Huazi who believes that "death is better than forced life". "Forcing life" is a life of misery. I heard that people in the old society were miserable. According to Zihuazi's opinion, shouldn't death be regarded as home?It seems that Yang Zhu's propositions cannot be turned into governance in any case, and even if there is no confrontation between Confucianism and Legalism, it will fade away sooner or later.Its shadow still exists, but it has changed into another posture.There is also a man named Zhan He who advocates getting close to Yang Zhu. Someone asked him what he would do if he was alone in Jianghai and had Wei Que in his heart.He replied that he would be reborn, and rebirth would be easy.The man said, if you really can't do it, why are you always thinking about fame and fortune?He said, if you really can't restrain yourself, don't restrain yourself at all, even if you indulge yourself, you can do whatever you feel comfortable with, so as not to harm life.There are a thousand reasons for Chinese-style hedonism, and this is one of them.

People in later generations criticize Yang Zhu's "One Mao Theory" as soon as they think about it, saying that he would not change the world, which is too self-interested.In fact, according to fairy tales, there are many naked animals walking in the forest, which is very unseemly.Their hairs were not exchanged for the world together, but pulled out one by one.