Publisher: Obviously, the author looks at Laozi from the perspective of western philosophy and has set many traps. I tried to answer, this is also a test of my old learning accomplishment:
Laozi is the founder of Taoism, and he knows the theoretical basis of Taoist thought, that is, Laozi's "Taoist theory"
1) Laozi's "Tao" has dual attributes, that is, it has both material and spiritual characteristics. How to understand it?
A: From the perspective of western philosophy, Lao Tzu believes that Tao is the universal source and cause of all things in the universe, which makes people feel that Lao Tzu is an objective idealist as a whole. But the first sentence "Tao can be Tao, but it is extraordinary." In Mr. Wang's view, "Tao" is just a creation in people's minds, which seems to indicate that Laozi is a subjective idealist. However, Chapter 21 of Laozi says: "Tao is a thing, not a thing. It's embarrassing, and elephants. I was in a daze, and there was something inside; Subtle and essential; Its essence is true, and there is a letter inside. " "Tao" has become a tangible material entity (although this entity is vague), and what is discussed here is obviously the materiality of "Tao". And "things are mixed and born" and "nothing" is the beginning of heaven and earth; The explanation of "Tao" by the mother of all things clearly shows that "Tao" has both spiritual and material attributes. In fact, we should understand that Laozi is the originator of China's philosophy, and China's philosophy is essentially different from western philosophy. If I insist on wearing those hats in the classification of western philosophy on my head, no matter which one is inappropriate.
2) There is a proposition in Laozi that "Taoism is natural". Does it mean that everything is born? So, what is the relationship between Tao and everything?
Answer: Only according to the complete exposition of "Tao gives birth to one, two, three and all things" and "man, earth, heaven, Tao and nature" can we understand the relationship between Laozi's Tao and all things. Here we can see that Laozi's Tao has the ontological attribute of the world, and it can produce the whole world (everything) through the order of "Tao → one → two → three → everything". However, Tao is not the absolute world noumenon like logos in western philosophy, absolute spirit and God in western culture, nor is it a perpetual motion machine with infinite energy. She also needs to draw nutrition from the world she created, which is the so-called "Tao is nature". In this way, the world structure in Laozi's eyes is a circular form of "Tao → one → two → three → everything → Tao", but it is not a completely closed cycle, and it is similar to the cycle of "root → stem → branch → leaf → root" in reality. The last link (key link) "Everything→ Tao" and "Leaves→ Root" are very different from the previous links (common links) "Tao → One → Two → Three → Everything" and "Root → Stem → Branch → Leaf". It should be noted that the common ring belongs to the type of "bullying the weak with the strong", and the key ring is the type of "defeating the strong with the weak" (for details, see Tian Mao's Similarity and Difference-Philosophical Wisdom of Three, Chapter II Rope and Chain, China Social Publishing House, 2009).
3) How to understand the original and ultimate characteristics of Tao in Laozi? What is the position in the history of China's thoughts?
A: According to the law that logically connotation and extension are inversely proportional, Laozi's "Tao" has the characteristics of infinite connotation and infinitesimal extension in space, and also has the characteristics of infinite connotation and infinitesimal extension, that is, the so-called "Tao" has nothing outside but nothing inside. Similarly, in time, Lao Tzu's "Tao" also has the characteristics that everything has a beginning and an end. This coincides with the characteristics of "infinity point" in modern mathematical projective geometry. Since Laozi defined "Tao", the whole history of China's thought and philosophy has become a history of explaining "Tao". The saying in The Analects of Confucius that "Tao died in the evening" shows that "seeking Tao" is the highest pursuit of intellectuals in China.
3. Laozi is rich in dialectical thoughts, and his famous saying is "the movement against Tao".
1) How do you understand the famous saying "The way of the opponent is the way of the weak" in Laozi? Can this sentence be absolute? Why?
A: No, it has both the meaning of returning and the opposite meaning. Anti-Tao movement refers to the movement law of interdependence and mutual transformation between contradictory parties. Weakness means both weakness and weakness (flexibility). The weak use Tao, that is to say, the meaning of life lies in softness and rigidity. What Laozi explains here is the truth of "negation of negation" in dialectics. But no truth is absolute, and its universality can only be guaranteed within a certain range and under certain conditions. There is no universal truth in the world.
2) There are many sentences about "whether there is mutual existence or not, it is difficult to complement each other" in Laozi. Does it basically mean about the interdependence of opposites? Why?
Answer: "Are they mutually existing, difficult and complementary, similar in length, complementary in height, harmonious in sound and go hand in hand?" The above is Lao Tzu's exposition on the interdependence of opposites. It is generally believed that Laozi particularly emphasizes weakness and advocates inaction. This is not to say that Lao Tzu denies being strong and promising, but because people often only see the positive, positive and above things, and often ignore the negative and below things. In fact, I see the problem very comprehensively. In many places, he clearly reminded people to pay attention to the two sides of things. In particular, he also emphasized that "it is better to keep the center than to say much", which is the core view that Laozi wants to express to people.
3) The dialectics in Laozi sometimes smacks of sophistry. Did you see this? Can you give an example to illustrate?
A: Sophistication means pushing the two sides of things to absoluteness, thinking that they are really fake and black is white, and advocating that the two poles of things should be evenly distributed. Similar language can be seen everywhere in Laozi, such as: "Misfortune depends on it, and happiness depends on it." "Words are not beautiful, but kind words are not beautiful. Good people don't argue, and debaters are not good. The knower doesn't know, and the blogger doesn't know. " Wait, the key is how to interpret these sentences. In fact, Lao Tzu did not divide the two ends equally, but relied on both ends.
4. Lao Tzu's attitude towards Tao is unspeakable, so it is unusual to say that he can be Tao.
1) How do you understand the first sentence in the opening of the Tao Te Ching, "Tao can be Tao, extraordinary Tao, famous but not famous"? Is the meaning of Tao the same?
A: In the more primitive bamboo slips and silk book Laozi, "Chang" means "Heng". So this sentence can be interpreted as: the Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao, and the name that can be called is not the eternal name. The word "Tao" has different meanings. The first refers to "Tao", the second refers to "speech", and the third is the "avenue" that Laozi mainly demonstrated. In reality, as long as there is knowledge of "unlimited information", it is not complete, let alone Laozi's "avenue".
2) In Laozi, it is often said that Tao is not what it is, but what it is not, such as Tao, turning a blind eye, listening without hearing, and learning without learning. What are the characteristics of thinking?
A: Because Lao Zi's "Tao" contains too much scope and is somewhat mysterious and elusive, it is not feasible to define "what", so we have to use the exclusion method of "not what" to explain it. Although this is a helpless move, it also shows that Laozi is good at using reverse thinking.
3) After reading Laozi, have you noticed its unique language style, that is, there are many negative language expressions, specifically, the words "nothing" and "nothing" appear very frequently? Why?
A: The unique style of Laozi's good use of negative language is to remind people to pay special attention to the negative side, the negative side and the following. It also embodies the characteristics that Lao Tzu is good at using reverse thinking.
5. In Laozi, the future society is designed and planned theoretically, that is, the model of "small country with few people"
1) Why does the book "Lao Zi" position the vision of the future society as a "small country with few people" model, and what is its connection with the social and historical conditions at that time?
A: I saw that the development of things will eventually move towards its opposite law. It can be inferred that the tribes in primitive society "small countries and few people" will eventually move towards "small countries and few people" again after the "big countries and many people" in Xia, Shang, Zhou and Spring and Autumn. Various signs of modern society (for example, the countries with the highest happiness index and per capita income index are mostly "small countries with few people") show that Laozi's ideal is likely to gradually become a reality.
2) The ideal social model of "small country and few people" in Laozi is related to its negative way of thinking. What are the characteristics of the social historical view in Laozi?
A: Chapter 70 of Laozi says: "Heaven will make up for its loss; People's ways are different, and the damage is not enough to convince the rest. Who can spare his hands to serve the world? Only way. " Therefore, Laozi's view of social history is not people-oriented, but advocates conforming to nature, minimizing human factors, reducing human interference, making society develop steadily and avoiding turbulence as much as possible.
3) Laozi's ideal social thought also expresses his attitude towards the real society. What is this attitude and spirit?
A: Laozi was obviously dissatisfied with the chaotic social reality at that time, but he was even more dissatisfied with the Confucian thought of advocating benevolence, righteousness and propriety. It is believed that artificially advocating some concepts and opposing others will further urge people to pursue advantages and avoid disadvantages, good fortune and evil, and pursue immediate interests. In this way, the long-term stability of human society will inevitably be lost.
6. Regarding social control and governance, Lao Zi put forward the governance concept of "governing by doing nothing".
1) What is the theoretical basis of Laozi's concept of "doing nothing without doing anything"? What is the relationship between "inaction" and "inaction"? How to understand?
A: The theoretical basis of the concept of "doing nothing without doing anything" is still "Tao is natural". Laozi advocates that human beings should take nature as their teacher, and thinks that only by imitating nature's practice of "not being selfless and evil" can we achieve the effect of "being for ourselves". Only doing nothing can achieve the effect of doing nothing. And "hope" is just a little bit of hope, and sometimes it even makes things worse.
2) Laozi's "inaction" political proposition contains the statement that "without Shang Xian, the people will not dispute". What does it mean? What's the negative significance? Can we realize this idea today?
A: "No, Shang Xian, let the people do not dispute" means that excessively advocating the establishment of the so-called moral model will make people become hypocritical and snobbish, pursue a false reputation and not do practical things. However, most people will misunderstand this and think that Laozi is opposed to using talents here. In fact, I just object to using those smart people. Even in modern society, we can't ignore the long-term because of fierce social competition and only pay attention to the present. This can only lead to the ending of "smarter than cleverness".
3) Laozi's "inaction" proposition also opposes "ruling the country with wisdom", which is considered as "the thief of the country" and "ruling the country without wisdom is the blessing of the country", which should be understood in combination with reality.
A: Opposing "ruling the country by wisdom" also means that we advocate cleverness too much, and we can only gain immediate benefits and lose long-term benefits. That's exactly what happened. Although the development of modern science and technology has made people live a temporary rich life, it is at the expense of the great destruction of human living environment. This has become common sense.