Chapter 25 Chapter 25 Taoism follows nature

There is such a thing, which is all-encompassing yet integrated, and you cannot grasp and study it in sections and analytically. study.This kind of thing was born before the separation of heaven and earth and the formation of heaven and earth.It has no fixed rigid shape and sound.It is silent, not only variable and not fixed, but also operates independently, has its own alignment and rules, and will not change the direction and rhythm of its own movement.It goes back and forth endlessly, and it can be said that it is the matrix, origin, and initialization of the world. I don't know what kind of concept it should be classified into, and how to call it, so I reluctantly gave it a name, called Dao.Let me explain with a little more effort, it is vast, broad, and infinite; when it is broad, it will run thousands of miles in an instant, and it will run endlessly;

Therefore, the saying is great, the sky is great, the earth is great, and man is also great.There are four kinds of greatness in the world, Tao, heaven, earth, and human beings, and human beings are one of the four great ones. Man should act according to the laws of the earth, the earth should be the earth according to the laws of heaven, and the sky should be heaven according to the laws of Tao, and the Tao follows or implements the natural laws of operation. This chapter is very important.First, it shows that the creation of Dao preceded heaven and earth. Lao Tzu regards heaven and earth as a secondary concept and Dao as a primary concept: Dao is eternal and a priori and transcendental; while heaven and earth are later and gradually formed .This is very incisive, and it is much more exciting than the saying that the sky does not change and the way does not change.

Second, it clearly states that Tao is compound.Hybrid, naturally generated in chaos, this is an important concept.Words such as Hunyi, Hunhe, Hunyuan, and Hunsheng all contain a primitive, original, transcendental, original, and fundamental meaning, and Hunzi is one of the words closest to Tao.The previous fourteenth chapter has already talked about mixing into one.The world that philosophers face is all things on one side and oneness on the other.In Hegel's words, the one side is the multiplicity, and the other side is the unity.How did they come together?Lao Tzu said it was mixed into one.Being able to mix all things into one is the ability of philosophers, and this is the use of Tao.The function of Tao is that it can not only separate all things, but also mix them together.Emphasis on the attribution and improvement of concepts, and on the search for a universal key, hoping to grasp a nifty nose and an acupuncture point, which will be invincible—including politics, martial arts, combat, and schooling. Therefore, we pay special attention to the proposition of blending into one, which is one of the characteristics of our traditional culture.

The meaning of mixing includes amorphous quantitative positioning, elasticity, changeability and ambiguity, receptivity and plasticity. The more chaotic, the more indescribable.The result of not being named after a name is a forced name, and the so-called "Tao" that is forced to be used for it may not be accurate and ideal, and may not be 100% appropriate.The word "Guwang" is the guest of the official title and the title of the generation. This is exactly the reason why "Laozi" made it clear at the beginning and emphasized in the first chapter that it is undaoable, unnameable, and unspoken.All the relevant discussions are not ideal, clear, and sufficient to explain the characteristics of Tao.

There is no verifiability of reason, chemistry, and life, no certainty of history and geography, no completeness and enrichment of mathematics, language and literature, and no standardization of life taught by Confucianism. This can be said to be a great regret of Laozi's learning .But on the other hand, it proves the subtle greatness of the Tao, which is greater than the name, and many times more than the name.It is difficult to express in all words, it is super general and super great that cannot be completed by all naming, it is a trend that can never be completed but never ends →∞, it tends to divinity and not all human nature concept.You can make full use of your imagination, abstraction and perception to approach this Tao.

Previously, Lao Tzu had already talked about the mysterious, Yi, Xi, Wei, and Chong of the Tao... This is the quality of the Tao.Laozi also talked about water, emptiness, tranquility, infants, a good place to live, and a good heart... This is to explain the character and virtue of the Tao.It is the effect of the preaching that the Tao is mysterious, 橐龠, moving and getting better.This chapter talks about the greatness, death, distance, and reverse of the Tao, and it is the pattern of the Tao. Big is about coverage, death is about changeability, and far is about depth and permanence.The deeper the Tao, the farther it is from daily experience and superficial views.On the contrary, it is about inversion and circulation.The operation of any thing is not a one-way vector (a simple arrow), and everything changes invariably, and everything will be reversed when it is extreme.

Therefore, the Chinese like and worship the circle, and believe that all things go round and round, one yuan starts again, all things are renewed, and all things have no beginning and no end. Further down is a summary of the "Four Big" of Dao, Heaven, Earth and Man.Compared with the "Big Four", the "Three Talents" that are more generally accepted by the Chinese are the heaven, earth and people, or the theory of the right time, place and people.The second chapter of "Shuo Gua" says: The "Yi" written by the sages of the past is also based on the principle of following the fate.Therefore, the way to establish the sky is called Yin and Yang; the way to establish the earth is called softness and rigidity; the way to establish man is called benevolence and righteousness.Combine the three talents and get two of them, so the six paintings of "Yi" form the hexagram.

And Mencius said: The right time is not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as the harmony of people. That is to say, for a long time, under the guidance of mainstream Confucian culture, the majority of Chinese believe that the world is composed of three dimensions: heaven, earth and man.This is not a three-dimensional space in geometry, but a three-dimensional world in philosophy and sociology.Chinese people also often combine the way of heaven with the development trend of history, fate or the so-called aura, the principle of yin and yang, and the distinction between surplus and deficiency when talking about heaven.That is to say, the factors of heaven, time, and times are examined together. To say that a dynasty or a person is exhausted means that its or his (her) era has passed, and the will of heaven has changed, and it is not on his or her side. edge, so it is called Tianshi.

When talking about land, it combines land and resources, terrain benefits and regional culture, and the complementarity of hardness and softness, so it is called geographical advantage.When talking about people, Chinese people pay more attention to the group, which is the degree of unity and organization of the group, the degree of harmony and the effectiveness of collective behavior, and the quality of the group, especially the degree of cultivation of benevolence and morality, so it is called "human harmony". . To put it simply: the sky refers to time.Heaven is a priori concept of historical time and fatality.Earth refers to space.Land is called geographical advantage, which is a concept of spatial location, objectivity and practicality.People refer to sociopolitical culture.People call people harmony, which is a concept of cultural morality, plasticity and possibility.

The three talents of the ancients, heaven, earth and man, were very considerate. No matter how well people do things, if the timing of history is wrong, nothing will be achieved.If the geospatial conditions are not met, you will get twice the result with half the effort and fail to achieve the intended goal.People should try their best, and at the same time, people should correctly judge their own time and space conditions, limitations and opportunities. There is another saying, which was first seen by Mencius, who said: "The right time is not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as the harmony of people." Because people are closest to people, the second is the right place, and the second is the right time.The human factor is what people can do and work the most.The weather is wrong, the location is wrong, what you can do is limited, all you can do is to wait for the opportunity or change the location.If the human factor is wrong, the responsibility lies with you and your actions.

But when the critical moment comes, people will say "God will kill me" or "God help me".Days still seem to work in the end. Here, Lao Tzu added Dao, because Lao Tzu believes that the unity of heaven, earth, and man lies in Dao, and Dao is the highest and greatest generalization and the supreme essence.The "three talents" of heaven, earth and man are visible, and they are objects of clear feeling and thinking.But if there is no Tao, the "three talents" of heaven, earth and man cannot be unified and governed, and the essence and origin of all things cannot be explained clearly.But without heaven, earth and man, the great way would become an empty imagination, a space-to-space that not only has no name, but also may not exist. India also has the theory of the "four great elements" of earth, water, fire, and wind, so Buddhism should say "the four elements are all empty."Corresponding to it is the "five elements" theory of gold, wood, water, fire and earth in our country.On the other hand, Lao Tzu's "Four Great Ones", Dao, Heaven, Earth and Man, are the result of Dao governing the world of the "Three Talents". At the same time, Laozi does not oppose the abstract Dao with the relatively concrete three of heaven, earth and man. He praises all four, and he pursues the unity of the four rather than their separation. Further down, what is the relationship between Tao, heaven, earth, and man? People live on the ground, so they must follow the law from the ground, be virtuous, be brave in taking responsibility, be humble and look down, be firm and soft, and at the same time, pay attention to all actions in line with the local geography and geographical characteristics.The sky covers the earth, it is taller and wider than the earth, and it is condescending to the earth, so the earth must follow the law of the sky, whether you explain that the sky is healthy and self-improving; , Do the avenue without words, and make the sun and the moon without words.The earth has to adjust itself according to the changes of the weather and the seasons. The general dominance, generalization and general foundation of the "three talents" of heaven, earth and man is Tao. People have also grown up. Is there any rebellion against the above-mentioned theory of everything and the common people?Depending on how you understand it, everything about people also embodies the Dao, and everything that embodies the Dao is great.If the dog talk is the truth, the embodiment of the Dao, and the independent and unchanging movement direction and rhythm of the Dao, then the dog talk is also great.A straw dog leads the way, and a straw dog is also great, and the destruction of a straw dog is also great (refer to the Hindu god Ashiva who is the greatest god of destruction). Here, we have to think about it, especially for Lao Zhuang, greatness and insignificance are interlinked.For the infinite Dao, the Milky Way is also small and tends to be nothing.As for the specific things, be they mustard seeds or wimps, they are all rare and great existences, and they all embody the essence, they are all the manifestations of the Dao, they are all a particle of the universe, and they all have to be Be as great as you are, and be as small as you are—great is small, and small is great.Aware of one's insignificance, that is the performance of being close to the Dao, and it becomes the road to greatness. At the same time, no matter how great a person is, he is at the bottom of the "Big Four", and he still cannot be too cocky. The saying that Tao follows nature is even more important.The nature here is not exactly the same as the term "nature" that is commonly used today—mainly to distinguish it from everything created by human beings. Lao Tzu's "nature" mainly refers to a state, that is, one's own natural movement, which refers to self-movement, change, existence, or no movement, no change, existence until non-existence, disappearance, and perishing. It is unnecessary and impossible to change artificially their natural state. This kind of explanation makes you feel that the "nature" of the past is similar to the so-called "nature" of today.Tao is natural, not subject to will, value, culture, power, technology and talent.It has no room for personal choices, tendencies, likes and dislikes, good and evil, emotions, desires.It can only move itself.This kind of natural theory is more objective and calm, and it contains a kind of indifference to greatness, indifference to authority, and indifference to god. It is really enough for readers to drink a pot if they understand such a cold way of "following nature" without a little heat and obsession. There is a problem here. According to Lao Tzu's theory, Tao is supreme, boundless, endless, cyclical, infinite, and most original.Whether the world exists or not, it all comes from Tao.Why is there suddenly a "nature" that is "higher" than Tao, greater and more powerful?And only here, the content of the talk seems to be that nature is the object of the Taoist method, why? My personal experience is: law person can be interpreted as Shifa, a transitive verb; it can also be interpreted as law, an abstract noun.Man learns from the earth, and the law of man is equal to the law of the earth.The earth learns from the law of the sky, and the laws of the earth are equal to the laws of the sky.The heavenly master follows the Tao, and the law of the sky is equal to the law of the Tao.What about the law of Tao?The law of Tao is naturalness, self-movement, self-existence, self-becoming this and that. The best explanation for Tao following nature is: the law of Tao is a natural movement.The law of Tao is to move by oneself. Of course, it can also be said that the law of imitation is the law of natural movement, or that the object of imitation is natural movement, or that the law is based on natural movement. Listing the formula, it is human → earth → heaven → Tao = nature.The "law" of Tao to nature is not the same concept as that of man→earth→heaven→Tao. Man→Earth→Heaven→Tao=Nature itself is like a circle, not a vector straight line.Because the natural characteristics of Tao include all things, it should be said that it also includes people, earth, and heaven.Tao is the essence of the world, and nature is the nature of Tao, which is more fundamental than big, passing, far, and reverse.Dao is great, nature is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and people can also be great. The greatness of a person lies in the depth of your understanding of the Tao. The saying that Tao follows nature is also for the purpose of making people calm and respectful of the law of self-transformation of all things.