Chapter 12 one two immortal

Immortality is a manifestation of Lesheng's desire.Not the highest performance, but the performance of concessions.The highest performance is longevity, as Qin Huang and Han Wu pursued, and alchemy Taoist priests as Ge Hong and others imagined.Impossible to achieve immortality, I have no choice but to retreat modestly and seek immortality.There are many ways to say this.As the saying goes: "People leave their names when they pass by, and geese leave their voices when they pass by." Ma Qian of Taishi Company said: "Those who establish a name can do it to the extreme. . . ... The famous mountain in Tibet is passed on to its people." "Zuo Zhuan" put it comprehensively and carefully, and it is: "There is virtue in the great (tai), followed by meritorious service, followed by meritorious service, although it will not be abandoned for a long time." Not to be abandoned , there are many manifestations.The most common is found in the text, such as Su Dongpo, not only all kinds of works handed down, but also "Song History" biography.Other forms, such as a system created by someone, a building built by someone, a house lived in by someone, a utensil was left by someone, a tomb is someone's resting place, etc., Both are.The ways of expression are different, but the essence is the same, that is, the dead are stored in the memory of the living.

This unfortunate state of affairs is the result of the intrusion of modern scientific knowledge, which was not the case before.Jin Ruanzhan wrote "On No Ghosts", it is said that ghosts really come, which proves that people who spread this story still believe in ghosts.Ghosts come from the immortality of the soul.The soul is immortal, and the soul survives, is it much better than just storing it in other people's memory?For although this is not eternal life, it is eternal existence, and no one dies like a lamp goes out.It is a pity that this wonderful fantasy has irreparable gaps.God and form are united, become a certain person, die and leave, what is the appearance of the God after leaving?It does not make sense to be the same as the form (the secular superstition looks at it this way), because God is independent of the form; it is difficult to imagine that it is different from the form.Second, the soul is also inseparable from the situation.One possibility is to temporarily borrow the shape of the world and live in a place other than the world, such as Yang Yuhuan, in the fairy mountain on the sea, such as Lian Suo, in the tomb (representing the underworld). Will the person concerned feel at ease with such a long-term existence?At least the living people think that they will not be at ease, so they have to find another form and return to the world (reincarnation).However, in this way, the previous life was Wang Er, this life is Zhang San, and the next life is Li Si. The three have different appearances and do not know each other. Can they still be considered as long-lived?What's more, there is also the Buddhist theory of the Six Paths of Reincarnation that this life is Zhang San, and the next life may not be Li Si, but a donkey. , only talking about immortality, that is, the so-called leaving a name after the passing of a person.

Let's start with the negative side first, there are also those who are not interested in leaving their names.Usually it is to see through the world, anyway, it is what it is, just let it go. "Take food to seek gods, and it is often misunderstood by medicine. It is better to drink fine wine, and be indulged in vegetarianism." This is the opinion among ordinary people.It can also come from extraordinary people. For example, Empress Lu of Han Gaozu persuaded people more than once: "Life in the world is like a white horse passing through the gap, so why do you suffer so much!" There are also complaints, such as saying; If it is alive, it will be banned, and if it is dead, it will be rotten. Who knows the difference?" Anyway, it is also destroyed, and it doesn't matter whether it is named or not.A further step is to escape from the name. There are Chaofu, Xu You, etc. in the distance, and Han Shan, Shide, etc. later. It is only because there are many good people in the world, such as Huangfumi and Fenggan, that they backfired and kept their names.

There are many reasons for not being interested in leaving a name, which can be ignored.But one thing is extremely important, that is, there are very few genuine goods at a fair price.Great men, even those who oppose the personality cult, are more or less attached to it.Ordinary people, lucky enough to be able to reach it, males strive to climb to the Lingyan Pavilion, and females strive to build a chastity workshop;It's the same as usual.It is difficult to seek to establish virtue until one can become famous.It is not easy to make meritorious service, such as Guan Zhong and Zhang Qian.It seems to be relatively easy to write something, but it is not easy to write something, and some people are willing to print it, and some people are willing to buy it, especially after the change of dynasty.As a last resort, I had to lose it again and again.Some people can't even take care of food and clothing. Of course, they must put all their energy and attention on food, rice, oil and salt. If they have a little extra, they will inevitably relapse. , Engraved on a certain year, month and day so and so visited here.In short, when people have life, they are reluctant to bear it for no reason, but the law of life and death is irresistible, what should we do?Keeping a name is one of the impossible solutions, so seeking immortality has become a major event in life.

As mentioned above, immortality, no matter how it is expressed, its essence can only be stored in the memory of the comer.Isn't this illusory?If pressed deeply, it becomes illusory.Take Su Dongpo as an example. Up to now, many people still know him. Judging from the aspect of knowing him, he is indeed immortal.But, can he know?He was already dead like a lamp, so naturally he couldn't know.As far as I am concerned, what is the value of things that I cannot perceive?We can look even further. Written records, even people, and the world we live in will all change and even perish. Once everything becomes empty, what is the meaning of so-called immortality?Considering it in this way, we seem to have to doubt that the so-called immortality may only be born happily and cannot last forever.Talk about masturbation, or even a superstition of self-deception.

But we can also look at it from the other side, so it doesn’t matter if the answer is affirmative, because life is like this, the ultimate value, we don’t know, then, for the sake of acting rashly, in some things, we just May as well be satisfied with masturbation, or even self-deception.Qin Shihuang called himself "the beginning". In the sand dune road, the illusion of longevity was shattered, but he believed that his descendants could rule the world forever. This is a self-deception for future generations who read history.But what he got was comfort, genuine and uncompromising.Immortality is like this. When you are alive, you can comfort yourself, feel at ease, and even feel happy because you think that this life is worthwhile, and you are not afraid of death. The function is indeed great.

There are also functions outside of oneself.Immortality, theoretically speaking, has two types, immortality and immortality, and what people want is always the former.In this way, the so-called immortality stored in the memory of the comer has a guiding moral force, because the comer, like the occupying person, cannot forget about immortality. But in any case, immortality is always something that seems to be real but actually is trance.In life, it is not reality, it can only exist in imagination.After death, it is at best a reward from the living to the dead, but unfortunately, the dead have long been unconscious and cannot accept it.