In ancient times, sacrifice was a very important thing. From the emperor to the people, people attach great importance to sacrifice. Sacrifice is a specific ceremony, and we can't ignore it. There must be specific sacrificial items, bathing and changing clothes, and specific dates. These are all indispensable, which shows how much people at that time paid attention to sacrifice.
Laozi once said a word after attending the sacrificial activities, but this word had a great influence on later generations, and even affected the values of later generations. This sentence is "the world is ruthless, and everything is a grass dog."
"Grass dog" refers to the pig and dog sacrifices woven with grass in sacrificial activities. I just saw these straw dogs, and then I had a lot of ideas, and finally I said this sentence. This sentence is mentioned by the author in many novels to encourage the protagonist to be cynical and change his life. But if you ask them to explain the meaning of this sentence in detail, I'm afraid few people can explain it clearly.
Most people only have a general understanding of this sentence and can't really explain the meaning. In fact, if someone intensively reads Laozi's Tao Te Ching, they will definitely understand the meaning of this sentence.
First of all, from Lao Zi's own point of view, he is proficient in Yi Li and has his own unique opinions and judgments on the concept of good fortune and bad fortune in life. Especially after he inspected the fundamental issue of Tao, his heart is with the Avenue of the Universe, and he is also very disdainful of his hypocrisy and false morality on earth.
Therefore, we can infer that the original intention of Laozi's sentence is probably like this: in heaven and earth, the avenue is fundamental. Heaven and earth are selfless They treat all sentient beings, just like we treat pigs after sacrificial activities, and will not be mixed with personal desires. Just as rain is not for the return of all beings, sunshine is not for empowering people. Therefore, there will be no personal feelings in the activities of heaven and earth, and so will the sky. It will not affect its direction because of the quality of feelings, and everything has its own destiny.
However, we humans have our own judgments on right and wrong, and people will have some views on right and wrong according to their psychological activities and desires. Just as we think that people who do bad things are bad people and need to be punished, it is also because this "bad guy" harms the interests of others, so people judge such people as bad people.
Maybe someone did a good deed to help the old man cross the road. In the eyes of others, this is a good man, but the name of "good man" is also obtained because this person has done something beneficial to others and benefited others. If he didn't bring benefits to others, the title might not be given to him. So people's judgments on things are selfish. In Laozi's view, this is a selfish understanding of people.
In this way, Lao Tzu's point of view seems to be correct. Many things we judge in life are related to people's interests. But everything has its own rules, the human world has its own way of life, and everyone has their own selfish desires, so these so-called selfish understandings also apply to our human world, don't you think?