Chapter 32 San Er Gui Sheng

This title is borrowed from "Lu Shi Chunqiu", which means that human life should be regarded as the most precious.Speaking of "human" life, because it is common to ancient and modern times, people eat not only two-legged chickens and ducks, but also four-legged pigs and sheep, and when they are enlarged, they also eat whole grains, cucumbers and white rice, etc. All of these are also valid. raw.You can only value your own life, although it seems unreasonable in theory, but human beings are limited by their destiny, since they want to live, they have to open their mouths often to swallow other lives that are less powerful than human beings.In this way, Song Confucianism’s so-called “things, I and Ye” are just a momentary fantasy while sitting in the study. When he leaves the study, he still wants to eat fried mutton and steamed buns.Therefore, to open the window and speak frankly, man, boasting to be the spirit of all things, is limited by the "destiny called nature", if he wants to live, he has to do some messy things, and he is no different from all things.The same as all things is knowledge; as for action, it has to be like "The Doctrine of the Mean", "the way is called the way".According to this way of life, we say that the elegant is "the great virtue of heaven and earth is life", and the vulgar is "it is better to die than to live".No matter the elegance or vulgarity, if we live for us, we have to admit that your life is unconditionally correct.

This correctness has become a principle for dealing with affairs large and small in the world. To put it more precisely: as long as it is beneficial to life, it must be practiced at all costs; unless it is absolutely necessary, never do things that are harmful to life, especially death.Based on this principle, coupled with Mozi's principle of taking the largest benefit and taking the smallest harm, it is relatively easy to evaluate the following situations.In one case, if one sacrifices one's own life to save the lives of the majority, the evaluation is good and right, and there is no problem.One situation is that it is good to sacrifice one's own life to save one's life, and it is right according to general rules. Although the implicit one does not abandon the principle of quantity, the explicit one uses the principle of respecting virtue more directly. , at least within the scope of common sense, can also be counted as no problem.There is also a situation where one sacrifices one's life to protect a certain amount of property that is not directly related to life. According to the fashion of the time, if the property is publicly owned, it is also considered good, right, and there is no problem?Seems worth looking into, because that would be a precious thing, not a precious life.

There are still some issues worthy of discussion related to Guisheng.One is the sacrifice of life for righteousness emphasized by Mencius.For example, Boyi Shuqi starved to death in Shouyang Mountain on the grounds that "righteousness does not eat Zhou millet", that is, he gave up his life for the imagined righteousness.It is conceived, because they still believe in the "under the sky, is it the land of the king" which seems rather ridiculous now.But at that time, it was always righteousness, so it was worthy of praise. Why should giving up one's life be worthy of praise?This is because virtue is a necessary condition for a group (at least the vast majority of people) to be able to live, and to be able to live relatively well, and a small amount of death is for a large number of lives.

When it comes to a large number of births, it leads to the question of poverty. Since the great virtue of heaven and earth is birth, is it like Han Xin's general, the more births the better?It may be so to infer the destiny from reality, because, even for people, apes, tigers, and elephants that reproduce less, the next generation always increases exponentially.From the destiny to the desire of the people, at least there are still many people, even if they are fined, they will still have more lives.In this way, should childbirth also be open?It depends on the national conditions. Whether to open up or not should be determined by means of abacus. If the number of unborn people increases greatly, it will affect those who have already been born or even fail to give birth, at least not to give birth well. We must try our best to ensure that the number of those born before birth will not increase.To put it more succinctly, it is only for the sake of life, but to restrict birth.

More urgent and more important than the problem are the measures.Clearly, at the top of the list should be the adequacy of the "necessary" conditions for survival.The so-called necessity means that one cannot live without it, at least not in a bearable way.For example, food, houses, cotton, etc., are nonexistent or lacking, even if they do not die immediately.Always too difficult.Therefore, when we talk about the way of peace, we must always do our best in this regard, in order to be able to preserve our health.Provide nourishment.What should come first, how to coordinate and so on.The principle is to put the masses first and then the few, direct first and then indirect, low-level people first and then high-level ones, taking into account both the present and the long-term.For example, if the national strength is sufficient, it can produce Coca-Cola in addition to the production of flour; even if the national strength is not so sufficient and the construction of water conservancy costs a lot, it must be repaired.Naturally, at least in theory, there are still some difficult problems to deal with, such as cigarettes, which are admitted to be harmful rather than beneficial, but it is obviously not easy to bite the bullet and stop producing them from a certain point.Here we have to use a principle of tolerance, or the principle that great virtues do not exceed leisure, and small virtues can come and go. After all, human beings are a kind of creature that is "different from beasts", and it is impossible to achieve perfection, so On some trivial matters that don't hurt muscles, you can only turn a blind eye.

The above mentioned low-level and high-level, life is precious, and it is required to live well, so it should be from low-level to high-level.High, first of all, is the improvement of the necessary conditions for life.Taking food as an example, the original limit of a few taels a day was changed to open the belly, which is too high; the original March without knowing the taste of meat was changed to occasionally have meat dishes, which is also too high.Afterwards, it was changed from time to time to eating chicken, duck and fish at will, which was even higher.Other conditions such as clothing and housing can be analogized.In addition to the necessary conditions, in order to turn the ideal into reality for the sake of your life, there are two other aspects that cannot be relaxed.One aspect is entertainment.This includes an infinite number of items, from small harmonica playing to massive foreign travel.The nature of entertainment is different from that of food. For example, from the perspective of ascetic monks, it is indeed nosy; but from the perspective of ordinary people (at least some ordinary people), it is not necessarily true. It's hard to give up, such as saving money to buy a keyboard.That's why, when talking about peace, after reaching the level of wealth, we must take this aspect into account.In addition, there is a more important thing, which is to improve the education of the group, which has been discussed before.If you can't pass the test in this aspect, you may not fail to survive, and you will definitely not be able to survive well.

Buddhism often talks about birth, old age, sickness and death, and in the evening of birth, there are still problems of sickness, old age and death.Let me talk about illness first, which is something that no one welcomes and no one can avoid.Misfortune has come and we have to deal with it.It is best to be able to expel.As a last resort, it is still based on the principle of noble life, and I hope to survive.It depends on medicine.Technological progress and the public medical system are inseparable. Of course, only groups or countries have such power. Public medical care is a way for healthy people to support the sick.An ideal situation should be that the disease is borne by the individual, and the treatment is the responsibility of the group.Besides, old age is a stage that everyone must go through, although it is not welcome, except for premature death.The big old trouble is that you can't take care of yourself, and the small trouble is that it's hard to kill the long days.To deal with old age, the principle of dealing with sickness also applies.That's healthy people supporting the sick, and those who can work support those who can't.In short, the group or the country should be responsible to the end.The so-called responsibility refers to adopting different methods according to different situations, so that the "old man is at ease", that is, he does not feel any hardship.The so-called different methods, for example, those who are able to take care of themselves but find it difficult to spend a long time can choose what they like, some sit in the house and play chess, and some grow flowers and vegetables in the garden behind.

Besides, the end of life that everyone least welcomes and must come, death.When a person dies like a lamp goes out, all problems belong to the living person, and once he dies, there will be no more problems.But Yuyun, people leave their names and geese leave their voices, so let’s say it’s a fantasy of self-deception (because I can’t know it). Since I have this fantasy, I would rather deceive myself, and the living will only have the beauty of adulthood.But always remember that a noble life must first have a life. If it affects the life because of comforting the dead, or even hinders the life, if it is serious, Qin will use Sanliang, and the future emperors will use concubines and burials. The next one is Qin Shihuang. It is too unreasonable to build terracotta warriors and horses, and even a middle-class family to use half of the family property to buy a golden nanmu coffin, hold a big funeral, and change new clothes after death, wear imported watches, and put them in a crematorium, etc. up.In fact, if you think about it carefully, leaving names for people, such as holding meetings, engraving steles, imprinting, offering urns, etc., are only the eyes of the living, and the dead are always like lights out. Things, not only imported watches, but also time, must be consumed, and should be as little as possible.

All of the above can be regarded as positive about Guisheng.There is also the opposite, punishment.To live a good life is to live a good life. The important manifestation of this good life is more happiness and less suffering, or even no suffering.It is clear that punishment is intentionally inflicted with suffering until it takes life.Can this be justified from Guisheng?Common sense admits that it can be found, that is the principle of using quantity, and only by punishing a few people can the lives of the many people be valued.Punishment of robbers is a good example, but many people in the group will not be safe if they are tolerated.Here is a problem that is not easy to solve in theory, whether the death penalty should be abolished.Some countries have been abolished, and the rationale is that they value life; most countries have not been abolished, and the reason is that life is precious.Which is better?It's hard to say, but one thing is true, for the sake of your future life, some people who will cause too much harm to your life, let him be a model, and it would be good if he can leave earlier.

Finally, there is another question, is it between life and suffering? If the latter is too strong, according to the principle of life, does the person involved have the right to sacrifice his life?There are many kinds of intense suffering, such as hunger, torture, various tortures in the past, serious illness, lovelorn and so on, which are common in the past and present. Living with reluctance is unbearable suffering. Can giving up one’s life be counted as a mistake?This is a problem that is difficult to solve both theoretically and practically.Speaking of theory, because there will be many reasons for whether it is possible or not.In fact, in today's world, there is no legislature that has the courage to raise its hand and pass a law that allows doctors to comply with the death of seriously ill patients.Life is so complicated and subtle, there are many things, don't say it, even knowing it is not easy, right?