Chapter 44 Chapter 46

The world is on the right path, and war is no longer necessary, and the horses return to the fields to plow.The world has deviated from the righteous way, and war horses are everywhere. The greatest evil is dissatisfaction, and the greatest mistake is greed.So, contentment is the kind of satisfaction that is eternal and inalienable. It is generally believed that this chapter expresses Lao Tzu’s anti-war thinking. He hopes that the world will be righteous, and military horses will go to the countryside to farm, instead of causing military horses to spread all over the countryside. . This kind of explanation seems to be unable to grasp the whole text. Could it be that the section about contentment is also about anti-war?Does it mean that if you are not satisfied, you will start a war?If it is about anti-war, isn’t Laozi’s anti-war theory too superficial and childish?

I have no intention of discussing and guessing Laozi's original intention here, but just expressing my own understanding of what kind of whole I would like to choose. I don't think what Lao Tzu is saying here is just about war and horses.The walking horse and the military horse here are symbols, which are meaningful metaphors in themselves, just like the scorpion, water, white and black, wind, shower, valley, knotting, retreat, etc. mentioned above. There is no way in the world, according to the old Chinese people's point of view, it is the era of heroes in troubled times.And the heroes of the old days, according to the understanding of the feudal society, were those who "can replace him" and "a man should be like this" (the above two sentences are recorded in "Historical Records")

Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, the two of them had the above reaction when they saw the scene of Qin Shihuang's tour) type of careerists fighting for power and profit.The more such heroes there are, the more it shows that the people at that time, as Lu Xun said, "wanted to be slaves in safety but could not get them."A few careerists killed corpses all over the field, blood flowed into rivers, thousands of miles of red land, and the people were in dire straits.An article I wrote about TV shows.When it was reprinted by a magazine, the title of the article was changed to "Many Heroes, But People Are Suffering". Although it is a bit straightforward, it is worth sighing.

That's why I would rather understand that the soldiers and horses mentioned in this chapter are about heroes in troubled times, about careerists, and about the price that ordinary people paid for the deeds of heroes and heroes.There is a way in the world, such heroes and heroes are better off plowing fields and planting beans to develop production and enjoy peace, while their ambitions are nothing but dung, rubbish, and a dream.There is no way in the world, they got excited, rode on tall horses, and fought until the sky was dark.They win or perish, the winners are princes and the losers are invaded, and the common people have no choice but to pay for them.

So I want to ask, why do people have the ambition to take over the world?The world cannot be won and contested by human power.In that era of jealousy, I wanted to advise people to calm down and think about the weak and ordinary people. However, how could this be effective? Lao Tzu also knows what to do and what to do, and what to say when he knows what to do.At least Lao Tzu left behind his writings, expositions, and thoughts.Thoughts are beautiful, thoughts are beneficial, thoughts are brilliant.Keeping a gap between thought and reality, keeping a thought advanced, unique and mysterious, this is just a landscape of life, a landscape of the avenue, and a reason for philosophers and wise men to live: if there is no such thing as Lao Tzu Philosophers and wise men, how much speculative and intellectual brilliance, how much speculative and intellectual enjoyment we will lack!

Horses neighing, chasing the wind and electricity, fighting on the battlefield, brave and tenacious, is a beautiful scenery. Sometimes the price is that the people cannot survive, and the harvest may also be a huge achievement.The horses were released in Nanshan, the swords were cast into plows, the heroes became civilians, and the generals also lived the lives of ordinary people.A lot of romance and pride have been lost, and the possibility of ordinary people's recuperation, that is, respite, has been increased.Lao Tzu tells us such a paradox. Do you wish to fly away with dung, or are the soldiers born in the suburbs?

Then you have to be content with yourself.When will people be able to do it?Wang Xiaobo wrote some texts during his lifetime, and he tended to criticize some people's "blind romance".If you don't blindly romanticize, can you reduce disasters, blame, and disputes? Of course, things are not that simple. Sometimes you feel that life and death and war depend on a difference of thought.For a person, it is a difference of one thought; for a country, for the world, there are so many differences of one thought, and it is necessary to study the reasons from a deeper perspective.You are satisfied and you don’t want to invade, what should you do if you are invaded?You are satisfied, both inside and outside want to stop the war and fix it, and the other party just started to play, what should I do if it is called "the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop"?

Or what Marx said is more reasonable, people think as they live.On the surface, thoughts, contentment or not, determine everything, but in fact, class affiliation, group interests, economic foundation, social development requirements, and national and regional cultural traditions determine the thoughts and contentment of a person and all people. For thousands of years, Chinese people have worked hard on their thoughts again and again. The lower they go, the more complicated and chaotic their thoughts are, and the filth is black.