The language dimension of Confucian philosophy

is to grasp the first cause of all things in the universe and the highest realm of life, to reveal the unified principle that runs through the universe and life, and to Then he will reach the realm of heaven and man, and reach a free state of harmony with heaven and earth. Therefore, the wisdom of Tao involves something that is unconditional, absolute, and infinite. Obviously, it is often difficult to fully grasp the unconditionality, absoluteness and infinity of Tao in everyday sayings that target specific existences in specific time and space. Obviously, whether it is Laozi or Confucius, they undoubtedly have a vision for emphasizing the transcendence of universal principles over everyday sayings.

Starting from emphasizing the distance between Tao and daily famous sayings, Laozi further explored how famous sayings express the metaphysical Tao. He put forward the expression method of "what is true is the opposite" ("Laozi·Chapter Seventy-Eight"), advocating that the wisdom about Tao should be summarized through famous sayings expressed in negative form. Theoretically, although there is a certain tension between famous sayings and Tao, they are not completely isolated from each other. The first cause of the universe and the highest state of life indeed have an aspect that transcends daily quotations, but they are not completely isolated from quotations: in the historical unfolding process of cognition, through the dialectical movement of concepts, people can constantly cut into the finite. Infinity grasps the absolute in the relative; while the dialectical concept rejects static forms, it also contains the requirement of certainty. In this regard, while Laozi paid attention to the dialectical thinking form, it seemed that he had not fully grasped the relationship between famous quotes and Tao as well as the certainty of famous quotes themselves.

The same can be seen from Tao's transcendence of daily sayings. The focus of Confucius' philosophical thinking does not seem to be to propose a unique way of speaking to express the wisdom of Tao, but to emphasize that grasping Tao is not a departure. The process of contemplation of one's own existence. Confucius once explained "love to learn" as "being sensitive to things and cautious in speaking" ("The Analects of Confucius·Xue Er"). This so-called thing is people's daily routine, while learning includes the grasp of nature and the way of heaven. Therefore, learning is not mainly expressed in the analysis of words, but in the realization of the physical way in daily practice. Another example is, "The Master said: 'I want to be speechless.' Zigong said: 'If the Master does not speak, how can I explain it?' The Master said: 'What can Heaven say? How can the four seasons move and all things come into existence? How can Heaven speak? ? '" ("Yanghuo") Cheng Shude's "Analects of Confucius" quotes Li Zhongfu's "Reflection of the Four Books" as saying: "The Master is afraid that scholars will seek the Tao through words and words, so he wants to be silent, so that people can know that the true way to learn the Tao is with the heart and not with the heart. "Argument is based on actions rather than words." The analysis of speech and writing first points to the logical connection between the objects and concepts spoken by speech, which is often characterized by the achievement of knowledge. As far as its relationship with the wisdom of Tao is concerned, the analysis of speech and characters regards the latter as the object of understanding, thus making the relationship between the two present a binary confrontation between knowing and knowing. If you insist on understanding at the intellectual level, then using words and words to seek the Tao will inevitably lead to dazzling others with words, and the wisdom of the Tao will always be outside the speaker and cannot become the real existence of all beings. Therefore, only by realizing the transformation from seeking the Tao in words and words to practicing it physically and realizing it in the mind can we truly grasp the Tao. Therefore, Confucius' so-called "silence for desire" is different from silence in the negative sense and from external semantic analysis. It essentially requires a shift from objective understanding to inner self-enlightenment, and from this And the recognition of the metaphysical Tao is integrated into the subject's consciousness structure, making it one with one's own existence.

Generally speaking, Tao, as a unified principle or the most general existence, always has a transcendent aspect. However, the pursuit and grasp of Tao is not just a kind of analysis. The abstract contemplation of speech is always connected with people's own "existence" and is confirmed by people's own "existence" [11]. From the content point of view, the wisdom of Tao is not only the knowledge of the ontological world, but also the improvement of the subject's own spirit; the existence of the world and the existence of people, the questioning of the first cause and the transformation of people's own realm are essentially interconnected of. Grasping the unifying principles and development principles of the world means cutting through the infinite within the finite, recognizing the absolute within the relative, and from this, people themselves gradually achieve the self-object, subject-object, "not aware of themselves within themselves, and unaware of the universe outside." The realm of unity. Although the state of wisdom that leads to the Tao can be described by famous quotes so that others can know its state at the level of abstract principles, the inner meaning of this state to the subject does have an indescribable aspect: it has been condensed into the subject's An inner spiritual structure that permeates one's entire being.

As far as the relationship between famous sayings and Tao, speech and recognition is concerned, whether it is the requirement of "being sensitive to things and careful in speaking" or the warning of "being silent when you want to do something", it shows that Confucius agreed with Tao. While regarding the transcendence of everyday famous sayings, we also specifically understand the super-famous dimension of Tao as the unity of universal Tao and individual existence. It was based on the above understanding that when the second and third disciples thought that Confucius had reservations in preaching and teaching, he said: "I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to do without following the second and third disciples, this is Qiu Ye." ( "Shu Er") so-called "no hiddenness", "Four Books Reflection Record" explains: "The master set an example with his actions, but the disciples only said what they wanted, so he made it clear that he had no hidden things to warn him, which is the same as 'Heaven has no words to say'" The same." In short, the study of nature and the way of heaven is manifested by the existence of the subject and not just by the knowledge of famous sayings.