Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty-One

This use of troops is not a good thing.Most people hate it.Therefore, righteous people are unwilling to allow themselves to use force.An upright gentleman usually sits at home on the left side, that is, on the sunny side, that is, in the upper position.The negative side that is usually considered is the lower position.When fighting, sit on the right. Using troops is not an auspicious act, and it is not something that gentlemen like to make troubles about.When you are forced there, you have to use troops, and you don't have to be too enthusiastic, just enough is enough.Even if you win, you won't go anywhere.If a soldier is elated when he wins, he is keen to kill.A person who is keen on killing people cannot let him succeed in seizing the country.

During festive occasions, people should sit in the upper seat, and in case of bad news, they should sit in the lower seat.In the army, the partial general sits on the seat, and the top general sits on the seat, which shows that when they lead troops, they deal with the matter of leading troops with funeral rites.When a murder is successful or a war is won, one should cry, like mourning. What I said here is very humane and very sad.Just "an ominous weapon for soldiers" was mentioned twice in a row.Sadness and helplessness.The more humane you are, the sadder you will be, and the sadder you will be, the more helpless you are. This is how the world is.

Ominous and ominous, not many thinkers advertise how auspicious the use of troops is.The question is, what about the ominous?Who promised you that you will always be auspicious? I have read and watched some novels and films describing wars in the late Soviet Union, Russia, the United States, and Germany, and there are two kinds of characters in them.One is to participate in the war out of compassion.While participating in the war, they feel deep pain. They oppose doing too cruel things in the war. They treat the captives well, the civilians of the enemy country, especially the women of the enemy country. The comrades-in-arms had a fierce conflict.I can think of such works as the novel of the Soviet writer Bondarev and the later adaptation of the film "Courtesy Visit", which has such a plot.I have also watched a film created by Germany about the Nazi army's defeat in Stalingrad, called "The Battle of Stalingrad".

From the movie "Assembly", we can also see similar views and emotions.If I read "Assembly Number", I might say "My way is not alone". The other kind of characters are vengeful, red-eyed, and carnival for the glory of victory. Excessive revenge often happens, and they absolutely don't care about humanitarianism in war. War requires heroism and optimism. If a group of moralists and good people are fighting, they will undoubtedly lose.This is also something that cannot be ignored. Participating in the war with a funeral mood is the characteristic of the former type of character. Unexpectedly, it is connected with Lao Tzu more than 2,000 years ago, and it has a long history!All the sayings in this chapter of Lao Tzu are original and pioneering.The discussion and feelings about similar issues are not outdated so far.

Peace is a universal value, humanitarianism, and people-oriented. The less doubtful the universal value, the more difficult it is to achieve.Human beings do not act according to the values ​​they preach and believe in.To elevate value to supremacy is, if not a fraud with ulterior motives, then foolishness. It is a fact that human nature, desire-driven and profit-driven are sometimes more powerful than value-driven and difficult to control.Sometimes values ​​serve desires and interests.At other times, value requires the restraint of desires and the pursuit of interests. At the same time, it is difficult for us to deny that in human nature there are powerful things such as struggle, victory, self-defense, revenge, hatred, and even cruelty.What's more, for the sake of national survival, social change, class overthrow, and the suppression of violent terror and so-called crimes against humanity, it is difficult for you to completely avoid war, it is difficult to reject all means of use of force, and it is difficult not to think that the use of force for the above purposes is Justice.

So I have also read many books and literary works, which call for active participation in the holy and just war; blood for blood, life for life; It is to be cruel to the people; when you enter a war, you have no right to be merciful, and you have no right to back down. Only cowards and traitors will be merciful to the enemy... and I have personally experienced that for a nation, a country, and an army, there is nothing more important than defeating the enemy Carnival is more a matter of celebration, and the greater the cost, the heavier the sacrifice, the more precious the victory.The war mobilizes the power of the entire nation-state group from the countryside to the class, and victory is a festival for the whole people.Imagine that after the Soviet Union defeated German fascism in 1945, they paraded on Red Square and trampled the captured German flags and emblems under their feet.Although the Soviet army lost 27 million people,

Accounting for almost a quarter of the population, it is still impossible for them to mourn and mourn. Without military exploits, there would be no prestige and admiration; without victories, there would be no heroism;Who can overturn such a rule? How to do it?How to do it? Lao Tzu has already said it shockingly before: if the Dao is abolished, there is benevolence and righteousness? If the Dao is done, the world is for the public, so there is no need for war, suppression, or use of force, and there is no need to engage in sour words, fake jealousy, and sour benevolence.As for funerals and happy events, the lord is not the lord, the beauty is calm and weeping, if it is not done well, it will become what Lao Tzu himself called a "big hypocrisy" - not the way.

But Laozi had to say this, because he couldn't find any other way to express his attitude of neither fighting nor attacking, and being compassionate. Lao Tzu does not talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality like Confucius and Mencius.Lao Tzu's morality is Dao and Xuande, that is, the most abstract Dao and Xuande in the philosophical sense. It is not a concept of human relations, self-denial and ritual cultivation, but a natural and transcendental supremacy and dominance. .The four dimensions (propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame), the eight principles (adding filial piety, loyalty and faith) and the five constants (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness) cannot be derived from Lao Tzu's theory.Lao Tzu even ridiculed the unwiseness of setting moral standards for the people, thinking that it can only artificialize and complicate virtue, making virtue a fake and a show.But in this section of Lao Tzu’s discourse on non-war and non-soldier, especially in the discourse on using funerals to celebrate the victory in war, you can feel Lao Tzu’s moral sentiment, he reveals his sorrow and helplessness, and I repeat: it is called compassion for the sky and the people.

All thinkers, scholars, and people with lofty ideals in ancient and modern China and abroad have such compassion and helplessness in the face of military use and war. This is a paradox. In the era of hegemony and strength, you only talk about indifference and weeping. This is simply sour, if it is not hypocrisy and deceit. But let us ask a question: If we no longer talk about humanitarianism, benevolence, justice and morality, or a harmonious world because we face the reality and devote ourselves to fighting, but only promote fighting, fighting, killing, and bloody battles to the end, Either you die or I live, if you don't eat me, I say I eat you (this last sentence is what General Lin Biao likes to say), so isn't there no hope for human beings?Isn’t it true that not only is there no reality of harmony, but even the idea of ​​harmony, the dream of harmony and happiness, harmonious language and song images cannot be mentioned, done, or touched?

Then this is the eternal tragedy of human beings. Yearning for peace, preparing or engaging in wars, advocating humanity, guarding against being killed, occupied, or invaded, full of compassion, and having a hand in self-defense to fight back. But to strive for a big victory.After the victory, we must celebrate warmly. After the celebration, we must reflect on the tragedies of mankind. We must also advocate and promote the peace, justice, humanity, freedom, equality, and fraternity that will always be missed, fought for, and praised, and will never be realized. , democracy, and human rights are universal concepts.

An idea is a good idea precisely because it cannot be realized 100 percent.All the ideas that have been realized have all kinds of inadequacies and new troubles in reality, which will discount the ideas and even make the glorious ideas go out of shape.What we are trying to pursue is a beautiful idea that cannot be realized in one step.