Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

The avenue is discarded, and people go their own way and even do wrong, so that the advocacy of benevolence, righteousness and morality will appear.When the wisdom and strategies are developed, and the minds are more and more, the hypocrisy and deceit will be more and more.The rites collapsed and the music was broken, the six relatives were at odds, and the six relatives did not recognize it, so they felt the value of a filial son and a loving father, and even artificially carried out the teaching of filial piety and kindness that did not need to be inculcated.The country's politics are in chaos, and the monarch is in danger because he has no morals and talents, so he shouted about loyalty and bravery.

These few sentences are of great weight, sharp in content, iron in logic, shocking in concept, painful in tone, bloody in every word, and resounding to the ground.My feeling is that this is Lao Tzu's warning, Lao Tzu's grief, Lao Tzu's curse, and a bolt of lightning struck by Lao Tzu. Most people believe that benevolence and morality, wisdom and strategy, filial sons and fathers, and loyal and brave ministers are the treasures of the country, the pillars of society, and the core of values.Lao Tzu's logic is just the opposite.People should take it for granted that they live in harmony, help each other, share their wages, and live a good life together.It is only because some people are deceitful, crooked, and the social atmosphere is corrupt, that it is necessary to talk about benevolence, morality, love, helping others, and being brave in doing what is right.If everyone has achieved this, what's the point of artificially promoting it?

Wisdom and strategy, one thing is possible and necessary, but the result of too much emphasis on wisdom is ignoring the natural avenue, trying to plan for oneself, until it develops to benefit others at the expense of others, hypocrisy, cunning, scheming, intrigue, big liar Playing with the little liar, and the little liar playing with the big liar. Family relatives, family happiness, father's kindness and son's filial piety, brothers and sisters, loving each other is natural, but it is not natural and unreal to turn kindness and filial piety into moral norms.After becoming a standard, you have to pretend, show off, compete, force, duplicity, and all kinds of fakes.The fact is that those who talk about filial piety are definitely not filial, and those who talk about kindness are definitely not loving.Does a mother need to declare that I am loving when breastfeeding her child?When a child is having fun around the lap of his parents, will he say that I want to be a filial son?When a child does a little service for his parents, such as helping them walk or pouring them a glass of water, does he need to say that I am showing filial piety?If he repeatedly declares that he does something for filial piety, will his parents be comfortable?

Loyalty, loyalty, we have a lot of experience, just think about when the word "loyalty" is flying all over the land of our country, full of prices (not other characters, please don't change it), let's call it, that is the "Cultural Revolution", that is Lin Biao , When the "Gang of Four" is running rampant, when shouting for loyalty, it is also a dark period of turmoil and catastrophe, conspiracy to frame, mutilate Zhongliang, and injustice everywhere! These statements of Lao Tzu are very alarming to the world. Jia Baoyu later published the theory of opposing the death of Wen and admonishing the death of Wu, using Lao Tzu's style of writing.What Baoyu meant was that if Wen died of remonstrance, it means that the king is faint; if Wu died in battle, it means that the country is in danger and the king is helpless.I joked that Baoyu used the extreme "left" to oppose the extreme "left".It can be seen that Lao Tzu is old.

The folks also say that a filial son comes from a poor family, and a loyal minister is shown in a chaotic state.Although it is from a positive point of view to talk about the same kind of phenomenon as Laozi mentioned in this chapter, it also inspires people's thinking: one cannot but think about the advocacy of loyal officials and filial sons. One of Lao Tzu's assumptions is pure utopia.He assumes that people are very good at the beginning, and if they don’t engage in these cultural wisdom, values, morals, knowledge, politics, and military affairs, the world will be peaceful, simple and kind, and the Paradise of Eden.His assumption cannot be established.Human beings need to evolve, brains need to be developed, technology needs to be used, nation-state groups need to be built together, interests are in conflict, people need to compete, evil and good coexist, competition and progress coexist , culture and evil are together, you can't prevent evil by eliminating the method of prohibiting cultural progress, scientific and technological wisdom.In contrast, the Western concept of original sin and the way of restricting and punishing crimes with laws and mutual supervision are more realistic.

The meaning of Lao Tzu is not that he prescribes a prescription to prevent evil under the banner of civilization and morality, no, his prescription contains Impossible fantasy.The value of his brilliant arguments is that they point out the problem.His sorrow is that he has seen the problem deeply, and he has seen that the teachings of Confucianism are not enough to solve the problem, but he cannot prescribe a real prescription to solve the problem.Perhaps, the problem is that Lao Tzu wants to fundamentally eliminate competition, forbid fraud, abolish resourcefulness, exterminate rebellion against superiors and tyrannical policies that harm the people, and drive out all the germs of strife, strategy, and greed from the bottom of his heart.Like the previous and non-self-body theory, he thought too high, too fundamental, too thorough, too absolute, and it was impossible.

What Lao Tzu pointed out is: the more eloquently you speak, the more you must be wary of counterfeit, shoddy, contentious, exaggerated, inconsistent words and deeds, and counterproductive.Don't be fooled, don't be deceived by all kinds of nice words.I would rather speak less beautiful words, listen less beautiful words, and return to my own conscience and ability more, return to the original state and simplicity, return to common sense and nature, and live a life that is more natural and simpler, especially more honest and straightforward.Be a more authentic person, go your own way, and let the rambunctious people snatch the prize and naming of benevolence, compassion, filial piety, wisdom, loyalty, or other modern good words or foreign words such as Messiah (Savior) .What we want is the avenue, a return to basics.We do not expect, do not care about, and do not pursue exaggerated naming from the outside world.

As a mental work, as an adjustment of the inner world, what Lao Tzu said is still brilliant.