He who hears the Tao in the morning can die in the evening

Explanation 1

The Analects of Confucius is about Liren. ‘Benevolence’ is the core of Confucius’ thought. Only benevolent people love others. This is the political ideal that he has been calling for throughout his life. It can be seen that Confucius attaches great importance to whether the princes can adopt his benevolent government.

"If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening." The word "Wen" here refers to: becoming famous and being reused by the rulers.

Confucius had just finished saying, "He who hears the Tao in the morning will die in the evening." He seemed to feel that he was still not able to convince the disciples, so he went on to say: "It is not enough for a scholar to aspire to the Tao and to be ashamed of those who wear bad clothes and eat bad food." "To discuss it." This is where the word "Tao" comes from.

The word "Tao" in "Scholars aspire to Tao" has the same meaning as "Chao Wen Tao". The Tao here refers to the political ideal, that is, benevolent government.

Based on the above, we can easily know that "He who hears the Tao in the morning can die in the evening." means: If in a country, a person can achieve the ideal he has always insisted on in the morning . If he implements his political ideas (benevolent government), then it will be worthwhile even if he dies at night.

Here we must not simply regard the word "hearing the Tao" as simply "understanding the truth", otherwise it would be completely wrong.

Explanation 2

Explanation from "The Analects of Confucius" in "The Analects of Confucius":

This sentence is ranked after the three "Buyi" general outlines. The first article of "The Analects of Confucius". The so-called "hearing, seeing, learning and practicing" and "the way of the sage" must first "hear the way". If you don’t hear the Tao, there is no way to “learn and practice” it. However, this saying, which is familiar to almost all Chinese people, is often interpreted as something like "if you hear the Tao in the morning, it will be worth dying at night." If it is true that "I hear the Tao in the morning and die at night", even if it is worthwhile, it is still a private way. It cannot benefit others, so what is not worth it? These specious explanations have been circulating for thousands of years and are completely contrary to the spirit of the Confucian Analects.

In fact, "die" does not mean to die, but to "persist". The so-called "persistence" means "commitment". And "morning and evening" are not simply "morning and evening", but should be examined from the three perspectives of "heaven, earth, and people". From the perspective of "Heaven", it represents the "beginning and the end" in time. Starting from "hearing the way", it continues to "stick to" and "undertake" the journey of "the way of the saint" until it finally achieves "the world that is not stunned". " without retreating; from the perspective of "land", it represents "East and West", and also represents all places in the world. No matter where, no matter whether the conditions are bad or superior, we must continue to "stick" and "take responsibility" "The journey of "the way of the saint" will not turn back until it finally achieves "the world without shame"; from the perspective of "people", the biggest responsibility is the responsibility of life and death, so-called life and death. Only by understanding from these three aspects can we truly know "morning and evening".

The original sentence fragmentation "The Master said: He who hears the Tao in the morning will die in the evening!" Since there is no punctuation in the ancient prose, sentence fragmentation is a big problem. This sentence, which has been used throughout the ages, takes "death" as a real death. From the above analysis, we know that "die" means "adherence" and "commitment", and the corresponding sentence is "The Master said: It is enough to die in the morning after hearing the Tao!" In fact, the word "Tao" in it can be omitted. Yes, because the entire "The Analects" is about the way of saints and the way of practicing saints. Omitting "Tao" will not affect the understanding. "Heard in the morning and died in the evening", which is more in line with the tone of ancient Chinese. Just "hearing" without "dying" means you cannot practice the way of a saint. It can only be a verbal play. The biggest shortcoming of the corrupt scholars in history is that they only "hear" without "dying". This "death" is "death". To "stick to" means to "take on", and to "stick to" and "take on", one must be "dead-hearted" and "unchangeable in one's obsession". It is impossible to practice the way of a saint if one's stubbornness persists.

‘If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening. 'Understanding

Chao: describes the beginning and beginning of time

Wen: hear and hear; listen (in the classics, the beginning: This is what I hear, the end: believe and practice)< /p>

Tao: the way of the saint

Xi: the end, the end

It means: after hearing the way of the saint, we must continue to stick to, persist, practice and take responsibility , do not turn back, and reach a world where you are not stunned.

Explanation 3

Explanation from "Book of Changes": morning and evening correspond.

It can be understood as: after understanding the truth, change the things you did before without understanding the truth. If you are going to die if you smell it, then no one will listen to it.

3 Sources

Editor

1. "The Analects of Confucius. Li Ren":

Confucius said: He who hears the Tao in the morning can die in the evening That’s it.

The "Tao" of Confucianism does not refer to principles, but to their political ideal--"benevolent government." And "smell" cannot simply be understood as knowing or understanding. There is a passage in Zhuge Liang's "Chu Shi Biao": "Don't ask for knowledge to reach the princes." The "hear" here should have the same meaning as the "hear" in "Chao Wen Dao". Moreover, what Confucianism pursues is not the private path that one understands, but the education of the people and the implementation of benevolent government.

According to Professor Zeng Shiqiang of Taiwan Normal University, this sentence should be interpreted from the perspective of the "Book of Changes", that is: morning and evening are relative, evening is the past, and morning is about to come.

In "He who hears the Tao in the morning, he can die in the evening", "Tao" refers to "Dao", that is, the origin of the universe, the metaphysical ontology, which is the same as the first Tao in "Dao can be Tao, not the Tao" , is also the same as the "Tao" in "My Way is consistent". Of course, it can also represent the realm of "benevolence" in Confucius' theory. [1]

2. In the "Wenshi Zhenjing"

After hearing the Tao, there are things to do and things to hold on to, so people do nothing and hold on to nothing. So the sky. Those who do will inevitably fail, and those who insist will lose. Therefore, if you hear the truth in the morning, you may die at night. [1]

A person with dark feelings is a saint, a person with good feelings is a sage, and a person with evil feelings is a villain. Those who are in a dark mood have nothingness of their own, which cannot be revealed. Good and evil emotions arise from nothing, are inaccessible and are secret. Only animals have knowledge of good and evil, and those with dark emotions are ignorant. Under the heaven, Tao is everywhere. [1] "So if you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die at night." The "Tao" in it refers to the origin of the world.