Chapter 33 three sandwiches
Let's start with culture.Opposite Wen is Ye.I am afraid that the main reason why human beings claim to be the spirit of all things is that they can write from the wild.The situation of this change is that I want to make something that I didn't have before, so as to improve my life.What didn't exist before, from clothing, fish and rice, palaces, vehicles and boats to language and writing and ideas contending among a hundred schools of thought, are collectively called culture.People always want to become immortals after becoming emperors, that is to say, they have endless desires, so the content of culture is always becoming more and more complicated.It's complicated, not superior, because some of them, such as the emperor's arrogance and obscenity, the torture of the upper and lower, and the common people's stereotyped men, women's feet bound, etc., are obviously not superior; there are many other things , Take the present, such as wearing fancy dress, drinking famous wine, etc., whether it is considered superior still needs to be studied.It can be seen from this that the "brilliant" culture we always talk about has advantages, that is, it can be self-indulgent, but it also has disadvantages, that it is inevitable that good and bad people will mix together.How to distinguish a good ring?The principle is easy to say, and you can still ask for help from the life-saving principle; it is difficult to determine the specifics, that is, take wine as an example, it has existed since ancient times, and it is still produced and drunk until now. Is it more beneficial or more harmful?It's another messy account, which is difficult to settle.In order to reduce clues, I only say here that culture is not equal to civilization, only the part that can be called superior is civilization.
The following is only about civilization.We often talk about material civilization and spiritual civilization, like civilization can be divided into these two categories.How to demarcate, or how to divide into two heaps with clear boundaries?Rough imagination is not difficult. For example, roast duck is regarded as material civilization, and poetry is composed while eating roast duck. Poetry is regarded as spiritual civilization, and the boundaries are clear.But when you think about it carefully, the question arises. For example, the finely printed beauty wall calendar is not a problem with civilization. Further, different people will have different opinions on whether it belongs to material or spiritual.Here I have to be similar to Anzi, saying that material civilization is more about physical enjoyment without obvious harm, and spiritual civilization is more about mind galloping and can make life pure and upward.To take a practical example, there is air conditioning in the room, and taking a car when going out is a material civilization; sitting in an air-conditioned room to write a novel, and taking a car to see Shakespeare is a spiritual friend.The two civilizations are inextricably linked, and only the two most important ones are mutual generation and mutual restraint.Mutual life means interdependence, if you can’t keep warm, it’s difficult to write poems and paint; scientific research can promote technology, and it can also improve material comfort. As for mutual restraint, for example, if you have a lot of money and pursue material comfort, you don’t want to delve into it. Literature and art; its opposite, if you are obsessed with mathematics, you find equations and elementary particles the most interesting, and it doesn't matter how much you enjoy the body.When talking about peace, we must pay attention to the situation of mutual generation and mutual restraint, especially the mutual restraint, because if it is not handled properly, the material civilization will grow and the spiritual civilization will decline, and even the "civilization" will be in danger of collapsing.
Why?It also comes from the "mandate of heaven is called sex" that "human beings are born with desires".Desires rank first and strongest are the desires of the flesh, so the vast majority of groups, begging, and even fighting, are almost all for this aspect.Spiritual appreciation, research, creation, etc. also come from desire, but such desire is not so obvious and not so powerful, and because it requires higher cultivation as a condition, it is rare to be common, or in other words, it is not common in groups. It cannot be in the majority. In short, in the battle of mutual restraint, it is material civilization that is most likely to gain the upper hand.The historical facts of the past 100 to 200 years can illustrate this situation. People from all over the world are busy making things as big as airplanes and cannons, as small as Coca-Cola. How many people still think of the meaning and ideal of life?Enjoyment becomes the most prominent goal, and the result must be, introversion, seeking comfort and happiness, extroversion, and competition.Or to put it more seriously, individuals become slaves to money, and the world becomes a place for competition.
Many years ago, many people saw this disadvantage.Although Zhang Zhidong's "Chinese learning is the essence and Western learning is practical" is outdated, because his middle school refers to the old principles of ethics and ethics, but as a principle of paying attention to the human heart and morality, it cannot be regarded as completely wrong.Tolstoy went a step further than him, simply saying that Chinese people's tolerance is the supreme virtue, which can save the great powers from worshiping aircraft and cannons.All of them believe that spiritual civilization is higher than material civilization, and that if you want to save the world, you must give up material civilization and take spiritual civilization. Obviously, this is an overkill idea, but its intentions can be forgiven.What are you looking for?Seek to have such a society, in which all people become sages, so they can live in harmony without disputes, just like Tao Yuanming imagined the Peach Blossom Spring and described the country of gentlemen.However, unfortunately, a society that does not seek material enjoyment and therefore has no contention is just an illusion after all. What we can ask for should be: to be covered by spiritual civilization as much as possible, and there is also a lot of appropriate material civilization underneath.The spiritual civilization is placed above because it is difficult, has no disadvantages in itself, and can be saved, at least to alleviate the disadvantages of material civilization.
This is not even a fantasy.Always ideal, it is not easy to realize.Just think, that is to say, in terms of the phenomena we can see with our eyes open, the black sheep who are willing to do fraud, stealing and other bad things are not counted. It is only said that the general people who work hard for money and enjoyment, hope that within a not too long period of time, they will be able to Most of them pay more attention to science, art, etc., so they no longer work hard with their hearts and minds. It is not too much to say that it is difficult to reach the sky, right?However, when it comes to peace, one should not back down when faced with difficulties.You can not ask for quick success, but you can't not ask for it.Seeking truth, realizing or approaching, or taking a step back, is just a trend, and there must be measures.There are too many specific measures, but only principles.There are three aspects to the count.
One is to encourage upward.It is difficult to enumerate all kinds of spiritual civilization mentioned above, so we can give examples and compare them to illustrate them.For example, in the face of some kind of monetary benefit, one person strives for it, and the other person makes concessions, and the one we push back is superior because of virtue.Another example is between playing mahjong and studying mathematics, we recommend studying mathematics first.Another example is that when one has free time, one pours one's own drink, and the other reads Du's poems. We recommend reading Du's poems first.Others can be analogized.How to encourage it?Quite simply, but with better treatment in various forms, the most important of which is honor.Tradition and fashion can prove that honor is a pointer to guide and urge people to go. In the past, many people died of filial piety. Today, many people jump into the French Open for wealth and pleasure, which is enough to show the power of honor is how big.Of course, emphasizing honor does not mean despising material aspects, because money can be exchanged for almost everything, and it is impossible to completely separate honor and wealth.Specifically speaking, the economic measures of society should be such that those who are against spiritual civilization will not benefit easily.
The second is to maintain justice.This principle can also be said to be deduced from the previous one.The first step of fairness is to understand fairness, that is, to evaluate, and to give higher marks to all activities in the aspect of spiritual civilization.After scoring, there is a second step, that is, various specific measures.Or I can only generalize, for example, since people are encouraged to delve into science and art, it is necessary to provide convenient conditions. For those who have made contributions, achievements or are just interested in spiritual civilization, it is necessary to ensure that their income is at least no less than that of those who are not close to them. Spiritually civilized people.To give a prominent example, if the salary of a taxi driver is several times higher than that of a university professor, then how much you call attention to spiritual civilization will become empty talk.
The third is to stop falling.Falling down refers to all activities against spiritual civilization, ranging from criminal offenses to asking gods for divination.The work in this area is quite difficult. First, it is often not easy to grasp; second, it is rare to have a clear boundary between what should be managed and what should not be managed.For example, anti-pornography, it should be, but some publications, the color is only yellowish, or just low-level taste, should it be managed or not?This reminds us of the principle mentioned repeatedly above, the most important and most effective way is still to improve the education of the people.Civil governance, it is best to be able to do it, everyone is willing to make progress, and only a few or very few are not up to date.