Ancient style·Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly in Tang Dynasty. Li Bai

Original text

Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, and the butterfly was Zhuang Zhou.

As one body changes, everything will be fine.

Then we know that Penglai Water has become a clear and shallow stream again.

A melon grower in Qingmen, the former Marquis of Dongling.

Wealth and honor are like this, so what does Yingying want?

Translation

Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he had turned into a dancing butterfly.

When he woke up, he did not know that he had turned into a butterfly in his dream.

Or the butterfly dreamed that he became Zhuang Zhou.

Things are always changing,

There is no exception for everything in the universe.

We know that the vast sea water around Penglai Island

once turned into a clear stream of water.

Look at the old man planting melons by the south gate of Chang'an.

He was the Marquis of Dongling in the Qin Dynasty.

Fame and wealth are all like this,

Look at the camp of people with a smile,

What can you take with you before you die!

Comments

This poem expresses the view that things in the world and life are fickle; rich and poor, rich and poor, this is how it should be; hard pursuit is futile.

1. Origin

Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he turned into a butterfly and felt happy and comfortable. Completely forgetting who he was, he woke up suddenly, panicked. I wonder if Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, or did the butterfly turn into Zhuang Zhou in his dream? There must be a difference between Zhuang Zhou and Butterfly. No matter how it changes, the human mind is independent, the human soul should be free, and the human spirit transcends matter. The emotions in the human heart are complete. Spirit transcends time and space, infinite freedom. On the contrary, even normal people will be imperfect as long as they have inner defects. True love, like the concept of existence, is inherently perfect and overflows from deep within.

The discussion of existence in the Tao Te Ching puts forward a relative concept. The reason why beauty is beautiful is because of the existence of ugliness. The reason why good is good is because there is evil. Being and non-being transform into each other, difficulty and ease form each other, long and short show each other, high and low enrich each other, sound and sound harmonize each other, front and back follow each other - this is eternal, which one is true? Which one is fake? What a person sees and feels is real, whereas dreams are hallucinations, and they are not the same. But in Zhuang Zhou's view, they are just a phenomenon, a form and a stage in the movement of Tao. Zhuangzi is using the simplest fable to illustrate the most serious questions of mankind, such as life and death, truth and falsehood. How do humans deal with themselves in real life?

1. The spirit of freedom:

Zhuangzi was suppressed in reality, facing this strange world that did not belong to his time and space. He was looking for a kind of free will to express an independent spirit. In psychoanalysis, he is a symbol, whether appearing in dreams or in real life, with a double meaning. Zhuang Zhou longed to get rid of the hustle and bustle of the world, but he could not achieve it in real life. Therefore, he could only achieve the state of negating reality through "dreams".

The materialistic reality fills people’s lives, and their inner values ??are reversed. People are controlled by external material desires, lose their own free will and spiritual value, and fall into a strange circle of desire in the rolling world. Capital drives the alienation of labor value, and people are never satisfied. Short-sighted values ??dominate people's lives. People are dominated by the external material world and forget themselves. The temptation of power leads to loss of self, unequal status makes people psychologically unbalanced, the trend of interests makes selfish desires expand, and the pursuit of fame and reputation leads to the loss of morality.

Zhuangzi re-evaluates worldly values, grasps existence from nature, sublimates the human spirit, breaks away from self-centeredness, and liberates the human mind from the narrowness of self-importance and limitation, so as to avoid being mediocre and busy. Lost and alienated self.

Ease the despair caused by the various realities and lead people out of the spiritual quagmire. Broaden people's spiritual space and enable people's thinking to reach a new realm. He analyzes life and death and travels through time and space. Free will is found for us through reflection on reason and life. After the physical constraints are eliminated, people achieve spiritual freedom by transcending the limitations of secular concepts and values.

2. Life is like a dream

Zhuangzi infinitely beautifies human ideals and the value of their existence, but the cold reality is disappointing, and the contradictory state makes him fall into Confused. Therefore, it seems that nothing can be determined in life, and all opinions are one-sided and can be denied. Perhaps life is like a dream, and all right and wrong can be smoothed out in the chaos of a big dream.

Existence is just a pair of concepts born from existence and nothingness. Is the real world that we believe in and rely on the only one? How to prove truth and falsehood? The original world we are accustomed to is just a hypothesis within the scope of our cognitive ability. Is it real? Is our current body, wealth, and honor a dream? Because we are finite beings and we cannot see ourselves beyond this real world, the answer to this question is always unknown. Dreams present the fantasy and confusion of the world. What is existence? Maybe true and false are just the same. Zhuangzi analyzed the philosophy of separation, separation, life and death in life.

Life is like a play, the illusion of life, people perform on the stage; dreams are like life, people become dreams, floating up and down in illusory dreams, human destiny is nihilistic and helpless. Everyone needs a way to save themselves from the predicament of survival, and Zhuangzi has brought a bright light to people. People exist in society and are restricted by society. It may be difficult for their bodies and bodies to gain freedom and freedom, but in the spiritual realm, people can build a free space for themselves.

3. The unity of mind and matter

The identity of the unity of opposites refers to a harmonious state that eliminates the differences between things and completely assimilates them. Dissolve all things, all things and I become one. Heaven and earth exist with me at the same time, and all things are integrated with me. Everything is a unity of opposites. When the opposition between people and things is eliminated, it means the integration of two opposite concepts. Since people must cut off the contact between the senses and the outside world, they can only fall asleep after closing their eyes and listening. , Therefore, for the people in the world who chase things, they should get rid of materialistic desires, remove inner material desires and selfish desires, and let the alienated and enslaved spirit break out of the cocoon like a chrysalis, turn into a light and fluttering butterfly, and truly realize the transcendence and transcendence. The vast, free and open realm of "materialization". And everything is in the process of flux and change. This can be this, and this can be that. Things are different, but they can transform into each other. The negation of the negation of the unity of opposites, what is eternal and unchangeable is the logic of the universe.

In terms of limited life experience and limited rational vision, "Zhuang Zhou" and "Butterfly" are two different concepts of reality and illusion. Zhuangzi uses "dream" as a platform to make it possible for life and death, truth and falsehood to have equal dialogue and free transformation. In Zhuangzi's meaning, life and death, truth and falsehood are equal and can be transformed under certain conditions. Transform each other, and this condition is "dream". Through this "dream", "Zhuang Zhou" transformed into a "butterfly" and flew freely in the dream, indicating that everything is equal in the beginning.

In Zhuangzi’s view, everything in the world is essentially the same, and the essence of everyone is the same. The evaluation of high and low, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness is just people’s prejudice against the world, and people are often deceived. In order to survive, one's own heart has put on a false mask. Zhuangzi's view of life tells people that people should stick to their inner nature rather than follow the crowd, abandon the world's right and wrong, honor and disgrace, and let nature take its course, so that they can feel the true meaning of life. of happiness.

He deeply reflected on life and thought about life and death. The "fate" of "life" in "life" includes "death", which is an inevitable destination. Is death the end? According to Buddhism's endless reincarnation, death is the beginning of real life.

Zhuang Zhou’s Dream Butterfly has changed our outlook on life and the world. In the vast span of life and death, time and space have been completely equated and weakened, becoming an attribute of our soul’s perception of the world, annihilated We understand the macro differences and expand the canvas of our lives, and all this is changed through wonderful thoughts. Through a multi-dimensional perspective, life is just a solid projection, which changes the old psychological order and conceptual framework.

It constructs a free space. In reality and illusion, this world is no longer centered on humans, but is one with all things. This kind of freedom transcends the limitations of time and space and breaks the boundaries between life and death. It is not external objective conditions that constrain people's freedom, but people's own subjectivity and ideas that constrain themselves. If we can subjectively forget all external differences, , that is, spiritually transcending all natural and social restrictions, annihilating the opposition between things and self, forgetting all external things, until you forget yourself. Reaching this state, the heart reaches freedom. In reality, we cannot transcend the boundaries of life and death, but spiritually we can reach a supreme state of freedom, to seek the final settlement of soul and life, and let the spirit escape from the real world. Be liberated from all kinds of constraints, and finally lead to the free state of spiritual liberation.

On the philosophical basis of free spirit:

People must first exist and then have thoughts. Existence is real, thoughts arise in reality, but thoughts themselves are illusory. People will only have thoughts after their actual existential needs are met and their existence is guaranteed. Therefore, when Zhuang Zhou raised the question of who dreamed of whom between him and the butterfly, his real existence must have been guaranteed before he raised this illusory question and thought. But: the illusory question or thought itself raised by Zhuang Zhou, that is, "Do I exist?" In fact, it is a question that can only be proven in reality.

Descartes is a great philosopher. He made people realize that only when they begin to doubt can they become truly complete people. Otherwise, they are just ideological slaves.

Independently existing mind

Descartes proposed the first famous philosophical proposition: I think, therefore I am.

Since we are so excluded, it is vain to even think about anything that is slightly doubtful. So. It is indeed easy for us to assume. There is neither God nor heaven. There are no objects either. It is also easy to assume that we ourselves do not even have arms or legs, and ultimately no body. But when we doubt the reality of these things, we cannot also assume that we do not exist. Because it is a contradiction to imagine that something without thought does not exist. Therefore, I think therefore I am. This kind of knowledge is the most certain knowledge experienced by a person who reasons in an orderly manner.

I am thought, so I am. This truth was so certain that I immediately concluded it. Consider him the first principle of philosophy that I study!

This proposition has an obvious nature of subjective idealism, according to Descartes' point of view. I, the starting point of everything, am a pure spiritual entity. I am an entity, and the whole essence or nature of this entity is only thought. It doesn't need any location in order to exist. Nor does it depend on anything material. Therefore, this me. That is, the mind through which I am who I am is completely different from the body. Even though the body does not exist, the mind is still the mind. Our mind has a completely independent nature from the body. Therefore, it will never die with the body. Since we see no other cause of soul-destruction. It is natural to conclude from this that the soul is immortal. We also clearly have a free will.

Descartes and Christine's heart-shaped line (i.e. heart line)

"The Story of Mathematics" tells the love story of the mathematician Descartes.

Descartes was born in France in 1596. When the Black Death broke out on the European continent, he wandered to Sweden and met Kristina, an 18-year-old princess from a small principality in Sweden. He became her mathematics teacher. They fell in love with each other. When the princess's father, the king, found out, he was furious and ordered Descartes to be executed. Later, he was exiled back to France because of his daughter's plea. Princess Christine was also placed under house arrest by her father. Descartes contracted the Black Death soon after returning to France. He wrote letters to the princess every day, but Christine never received Descartes' letter because the king intercepted her. Descartes died after sending the thirteenth letter to Christine. The content of this thirteenth letter contained only a short formula: r=a (1-sinθ). The king couldn't understand, and felt that the two of them were not always talking about love, so he mercifully handed the letter to Christine, who had always been depressed. After the princess saw it, she immediately understood her lover's intention, and she immediately started to The graph of the equation was drawn, and she was very happy when she saw the graph. She knew that her lover still loved her. It turned out that the graph of the equation was the shape of a heart. The princess established a "polar coordinate system" on the paper, used a pen to trace the points of the "equation" on it, saw the heart line represented by the equation, and understood Descartes' deep love for herself. This is also known as the "heart-shaped line". After the death of the king, Christina ascended the throne and immediately sent people around Europe to find her sweetheart. Unfortunately, she passed away and took a step ahead of her, leaving her alone in the world... It is said that this world-famous alternative love letter is still preserved in European flutes. Carl's memorial.

The following are his famous quotes:

1. The ability to make correct judgments and distinguish between true and false. In fact, it is what we call conscience or reason. It is naturally equal to everyone.

2. Only when we understand something clearly in our mind can we believe that it is true. Otherwise it is fake. People should not follow blindly, but should ask why in everything. To pursue the truth. We must doubt everything as much as possible once in our lives.

3. Always strive to overcome yourself. Do not seek to overcome fate. Just change your desires. Not seeking to change the order of the world.

4. Correct everything on a rational scale. Not only use reason as the criterion to transform everything and judge everything.

5. Various senses sometimes make mistakes. Therefore, it is also very reckless to rely too much on things that have deceived us in the past. Since feelings cannot provide knowledge of truth. Then self-evident truth can only come from reason itself. And by using self-evident truths as logical premises for deductive reasoning, you can obtain reliable knowledge.

6. "I cannot deny my existence, because when I deny or doubt, I already exist!" Because when I am thinking, there must be a "thinker" who performs "thinking" , this "I" as the subject cannot be doubted. This "I" is not the "I" of the extended body, but the "I" of the thinker. Therefore, denying one's own existence is self-contradictory.

"Vajra Prajnaparamita Sutra"

Original text

All conditioned dharmas are like bubbles in dreams,

like dew or lightning, should be done See it this way.

Translation: Everything that makes a difference in the world is like a dream, like bubbles in water, like shadows in a mirror, like morning dew, which will disappear when the sun comes out; like lightning. , fleeting, and everything should be treated this way.

? "Zhuangzi·Equality of Things"

Zhuang Sheng was fascinated by butterflies in his dawn dream, and looked forward to the emperor's spring heart entrusted to the cuckoo.

Original text

In the past, Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly. Suddenly I woke up, and I was stunned all around. I don’t know that Zhou’s dream is Hu Dieyu, and Hu Die’s dream is Zhou Yu? Zhou and Hu Die must be different. This is called materialization.

Translation

Zhuangzi is using the simplest fable to illustrate one of mankind's most serious questions, that is, the issue of life and death.

The pain and impermanence of life inevitably reveal doubts about the authenticity of life in "Zhuang Zhou's Dream of Butterflies", which states that "life seems to be an illusion and will eventually end up in nothingness". Zhuang Zhou set the problem of human existence in a dream, which was actually a metaphor for "life is like a dream". Zhuangzi was reborn, cherishing and clinging to life, so he felt that life was short and perishable. The short life seemed difficult to grasp and difficult to recognize, so it gave rise to a feeling of illusion.

Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he turned into a butterfly, a very vivid and lifelike butterfly. How happy and comfortable he felt! He didn’t know that he was originally Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly I woke up, and in a panic I realized that I was Zhuang Zhou. I wonder if Zhuang Zhou turned into a butterfly in his dream, or if a butterfly turned into Zhuang Zhou in his dream? There must be a difference between Zhuang Zhou and Butterfly. This can be called the intersection and change of crops and me. Zhuangzi transformed into a lifelike butterfly in his dream, forgetting that he was originally a human being. When he woke up, he realized that he was still Zhuangzi. It is really difficult to tell whether Zhuangzi turned into a butterfly in his dream, or whether the butterfly turned into Zhuangzi in his dream. Later, he wrote "Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, Zhuang Zhou transformed into a butterfly, Zhuang Zhou transformed into a butterfly, Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, dream of a butterfly, dreamed of a butterfly, dreamed of a butterfly, dreamed of a butterfly, transformed into a butterfly, transformed into a butterfly, transformed into a butterfly, Zhuang Zhou as a butterfly, Zhuang Zhou as a butterfly, etc." Illusions, dreams and the state of confusion;