Chapter 9 Section 4 Private Taoism

The founder of Taoist private schools was Lao Tzu, whose life and deeds are not very clear.Sima Qian wrote "Biography of Lao Zhuang Shen Han" in "Historical Records", but the writing is very simple.We only know that his surname is Li Minger, style name Dan, and he was born in Ku County (now Luyi County, Henan Province) of Chu State. "Old" means old and virtuous, and "zi" is a good name for men in ancient times.People who are generally educated and moral are called "zi".According to legend, Confucius once asked Laozi for advice, so some people estimate that Laozi should be older than Confucius; but some people say that the legend that Confucius asked Laozi for advice is not reliable, or that the "Laozi" who Confucius asked Laozi for advice is another person .

The book "Lao Tzu" is a classic teaching material for Taoist private studies.A total of 81 chapters, divided into two parts, a total of more than 5,000 words, also called "Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching" or "Lao Tzu's Five Thousand Essays" or "Tao Te Ching Five Thousand Words". "Laozi" puts forward a "Tao" as the source of all things in the world, and believes that this "Tao" is not an ordinary general principle, but the origin of the world and the root of all things.It existed before the growth of all things in the world, it exists forever, and it keeps running between the things in the world. Everything in the world is produced by it. It exists, so it is called "natural inaction".

"Laozi" believes that "nothing" and "emptiness" are useful.For example, a wheel cannot turn without a round hole in the middle.The teacups, porcelain bowls and other utensils we use cannot hold things if there is no empty space.If there is no room at the door, there is no way to go in or out.If there is no space in the house, how can people live in it? "Wuwei" is the greatest "being". When we deal with things, "inaction" means doing something.If everyone lives and behaves according to the principle of inaction, and the country governs according to the principle of inaction, then everything can be done well.This is called "governance by doing nothing", and let nature take its course and develop.

"Laozi" observes the development and changes of all things in the world, observes the mutual relationship between success and failure, survival and death, new and old, blessing and disaster in social history and politics, and discovers the internal relationship between things. some dialectical laws.It is believed that misfortune is the premise of creating happiness, and happiness contains elements of misfortune. They are not fixed and unchangeable. Under certain conditions, blessing will become disaster, and misfortune can also become blessing. "The opposite is the movement of Tao", changing in the opposite direction is the law of motion of Tao.Not for any other external reason, but because the thing itself contains its opposite.Therefore, only the "soft" and "weak" side, "keeping the female", "valuing softness", "contentment", lasting and resilient, can finally "weakness overcome the strong" and win the final victory. This also belongs to the Chinese wisdom.

The contemporary world-renowned violinist Menuhin took an English translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching with him to tour around the world.This shows the great vitality of ancient Chinese philosophy and its outstanding contribution to modern human civilization.The great vitality of western classical music lies in the fact that music masters pour out their meditation on the world and life in beautiful melodic language, and at this point, the connotation of philosophy and music communicates.This is the deep inner thought expressed in musical notation. There are two main schools of private Taoism. One school is concentrated in Jixia of Qi State, known as Jixia Huanglao School, represented by Song Yin (jianjian), Yin Wen, Jieyu, and Huanyuan.The other school is represented by Zhuangzi.Zhuangzi is Zhuang Zhou (about 369 BC-286 BC), a native of Song Guomeng (near Shangqiu, Henan Province).Wherever there is an opposition between nature and society, Zhuangzi affirms nature and denies society.Zhuangzi believes that the world can be known, and admits that truth is historical and relative, but Zhuangzi does not see that relative truth contains objective, absolute content that does not change according to people's will. He denies the difference between things, So embarked on relativism.For example, he said that the ancient beauties Mao Qiang and Li Ji were said to be beautiful, but why did the birds frighten and fly into the woods when they saw them?The monkey saw it and fled up the mountain?The fish are scared to hide in the water?Zhuangzi said that he had dreamed of a butterfly, but he didn't know whether he himself became a butterfly in his dream or the butterfly dreamed of becoming him.He believes that life is only a temporary existence, insignificant, life is not enough to be happy, death is not enough to be sad, life is connected with death, death is connected with life, life or death is not worth caring about.Zhuangzi was about to die, and his disciples got together to discuss and plan to bury him generously.He said: Then why bother?After I die, I will use the heavens and the earth as my coffin, the sun and the moon as my double walls, the stars as my pearls, and all things as my presents. What funeral could be better than this?Zhuangzi's articles are very beautiful, full of fantastic imagination, pungent irony, lingering emotion, full of romantic color and strong poetic flavor.This had a great influence on the aesthetic tradition of Romanticism in ancient China.