Chapter 5 Li and Qi

Li and Qi Zhu Zili's idea of ​​first qi and then Taoism has been opposed by almost everyone since Ming Confucianism and Luo Zhengan. Wang Chuanshan applied this issue to the issue of Taoism and utensils. He said that if there are utensils, then there will be Tao. The Tao of that instrument.It is said that this problem, if it is traced back, should be discussed from the perspective of Buddhism.Generally speaking, there should be body before usefulness, qi and utensils correspond to body, and reason and Tao correspond to use. From the perspective of the natural material world between heaven and earth, it should be said that there is utensil first, and then there is the way of utensils, and there is the way of utensils first. The body is for the purpose of having a body.It can also be said that there must be qi first, which is the reason for qi.However, there is still a life realm in the heaven and earth, which is slightly distinguished from the material realm, and there is a slight distinction between the humanistic realm and the natural realm.Most of the natural world and the material world belong to doing nothing.The life world and the humanities world mostly belong to doing something.For those who belong to inaction, it can be said that the body precedes the use, but when it belongs to the action, it should be said that the use precedes the body.If it is said that use precedes body, it can also be said that reason precedes qi.If this is the case, Zhu Zili's proposition that he should be energetic before he still has his due status in the humanities circle, and cannot be obliterated at one stroke.

We only need to take the common sense of biological evolution as the basis, all life, from the lowest protozoa, even plants and animals, which organism does not evolve from the will to live?As far as human beings are concerned, the whole human body is performed from the original will of life.Because life needs to be seen, the body of the eye was first created.Because life needs to listen, the body of the ear was first created.Because life needs to be useful, the body of feet was first created.Later, life needs to be used for grasping, so two hands evolved from four legs.Life is just a function, and the human body is a body. It is not that the human body has the function of life, but the function of life is first created and then the body of the human body is created.If this meaning is expressed in Zhu Ziyu, it should be that there is the principle of seeing first, and then the spirit of eyes.First there is the reason to listen, and then there is the spirit of the ear.There is human reason first, and then there is human spirit.It can also be said that there is the way of life first, and then there is the instrument of life.But if we talk about the inaction side of the material world and the natural world, we must first have the energy of water and stone, and then there will be the principle of water and stone. The two truths each have a side of the truth.

All the material worlds of nature, even the creation and production of humanities, can also be explained by applying the theory that principle precedes qi and uses precedes body.For example, when building a house, it cannot be said that there are doors, windows, walls, and other objects before they can be combined into a house. In fact, it is the desire for the use of a house in people's minds, or the use of a house first exists in people's images, and then the house. The reality of reality begins and ends.All doors, windows and walls are formed because of their significance in the use of the entire house.Just like the ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hands, feet, chest and abdomen, they all exist for the purpose of human life.It is not that the ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hands, feet, chest and abdomen are assembled first, and then assembled into a whole body. For the same reason, a house is not assembled from the various parts of the doors, windows, and walls.The use of the house existed earlier than windows and walls.Just as life existed before the human body.

In fact, this principle has already been mentioned in Zhuang Lao Taoism.Lao Tzu said, "If you have something, you think it is beneficial, if you don't have it, you think it is useful." At that time, the word body and use were not used.How to explain it?Lao Tzu first said: "Thirty spokes have a total of one passing through the hub. If there is no one, there is a car. It is used as a vehicle. When it is not used, it is used as a tool. When it is not used, it is used as a tool. When it is not used, it is used as a room." According to what I said above, when it comes to the body, there is only the body of the household, only the parts of the house have body, and apart from the parts of the house, there is no such thing as a house.If the house is disassembled and disassembled, it will become various structures such as households, and if the various structures such as households are put together, they will be used as houses.The same goes for cars and appliances.Therefore, households belong to existence, but houses do not belong to them.After removing the household fence and so on, there will be no house, so the house is only for a purpose, not a body.Household and so on began to be the body.However, although households and others have their own bodies, if they are separated from the whole house, they will have no value of existence, in other words, they will be useless.The household fence and so on are only valuable when they are matched with the whole house, and only then can the household fence and so on be used.In other words, only houses have value and only houses are useful.Just as ears, eyes, mouth and nose have their own bodies, but they are used for one life. If there is no life, what is the use of ears, eyes, seeing and hearing.But life has no body, only usefulness, so Lao Tzu said, "What is there is beneficial, what is not is useful".This is like saying that existence is substance and non-existence is function, or conversely saying that function is non-existence and substance is existence.Laozi said that being is born of nothing, just like saying that body is born of function.It is also like saying that utensils are born in Tao.But Lao Tzu’s bases are only cars, equipment and houses, which are exactly what I said belong to the aspect of humanistic creation, not the aspect of natural inaction.

Taking the Buddhist theory again, the Buddhist theory is used to dismantling all the bodies, dismantling all the five bodies, and the use is gone.The so-called nirvana in Buddhism can also be said to eliminate this function. When this function disappears, the body will not exist.The so-called will to live in Schopenhauer's philosophy is just this use, and all things come from this use.However, such statements should only be used in the field of humanistic activities, not in the field of natural inaction.If it is used in nature, then the first use must be attributed to God, and if so, it will become the source of body and function.Became a religious theory of God's creation.Zen Buddhism only talks about human life, regardless of the entire universe, so they regard function as nature. It is not that there is a body first, then there is a nature, but there is a nature before there is a body. If the function of this life is cancelled, the humanistic world will naturally disappear. .It can be seen that these theories of Zen are still the essence of Buddhism.Song Confucianism accepted this meaning of Buddhism, but they did not advocate the abolition of the humanistic world, so reasoning should precede qi.Because we want to avoid talking about body and function, we only talk about rationality and qi.Because the function can be cancelled, the reason should not be cancelled.Therefore, Buddhism regards function as nature, while Confucianism in Song Dynasty regards reason as nature.In fact, both refer to the side of nothing, and both belong to the side of use.They all advocate that being is born from nothing, and use is prior to body, and they are all similar to Taoism.In fact, as long as we focus on the humanities, we must advocate this meaning.

Then from body and function to inside and outside, there should be inside first, and then outside.Zhuangzi talked about inner sages and outer kings, while later Confucianism explained body and function.In fact, the inner sage can only be the outer king, the inner sage has no attributes, and the outer king has attributes.There is no language problem in Zhuangzi's words.If it is explained that the body reaches the function, then it should be transferred to the Ming and the use of the body.If you don't understand its use first, then the body will not exist.The body is only the aspect that exists on the outside, and the beginning is the aspect that is not on the inside.Therefore, the body is easy to see, but the use is difficult to know.All scientific inventions can be understood by using the theory of humanistic creation that I mentioned above.Zhu Zi said that reason precedes qi, but if people say it today, it should be said that before there were airplanes, there was the principle of airplanes first.If this is the image of the word recognition function, that is, the human heart must first have a functional requirement to fly in the air, and the entity of the airplane is produced.The language is not sick.But if this principle must be taken seriously first, and the existence of real objects must first exist in the universe, there must first be the principle of infinity.Then there must be a God who stands on top of this infinite principle of memory.Therefore, Plato's theory of ideas is bound to merge with the Christian concept of God.Just because it is said that there is no distinction between the realm of non-being and the realm of existence without making a distinction, it is bound to reach this point.Philosophers like to advocate the existence of a superreal metaphysical spiritual world or noumenon, which are all disguised forms of the idea of ​​God.Therefore, when they talk about body and function, they say that nothing is for body, and what is for use.The same is true if you look at Zhu Zi's Li characters.