Laozi
The integration of the principle of governing the country and the principle of living has already appeared in ancient China. As early as the Shang Dynasty in ancient China, there was a prime minister, Yi Yin, who told Tang, the monarch of the Shang Dynasty, that governing a country like cooking should not be too hasty or too slack, but just right.
Being able to integrate the theory of governing the country with the theory of cooking small delicacies shows Lao Tzu's profound wisdom. In Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu used the truth of life and society to discuss the truth of nature many times, which shows that Lao Tzu's philosophy has penetrated into life, society and nature and is a thorough understanding of the world.
Han Feizi in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was called one of the people who absorbed the essence of Laozi's thought by later generations. He once interpreted Laozi's famous saying, "To govern a big country, if you cook a little fresh".
"Everything is done by Han Feizi" says: "Cooking a little fresh and scraping a few times is a thief; Governing a big country and reforming several laws will make people suffer. Therefore, it is important to be quiet and not to reform. Therefore, people who govern big countries rarely cook fresh food.
Tao Te Ching
This passage means that before cooking small fish, if all the internal organs of the small fish are dug out and washed repeatedly, the benefits of the fish will be destroyed. Similarly, when governing the country, don't do unnecessary things and don't change policies repeatedly. Because then people will be tired of coping and life will become poorer. Therefore, the monarch who knows how to govern the country belongs to quietism, and rarely changes the policy of governing the country, paying attention to the stability of policies and neglecting political reform. Therefore, governing the country is the same as cooking small fish.
As the saying goes, people who are difficult to learn are not difficult. People who find it difficult to govern the country are not familiar with it, so it is easy to see through the wise.
Because people with high IQ have mastered the common laws of big and small things in life and society, they know that governing the country is the same as cooking small fish. Therefore, it is as simple and easy for a person with high IQ to govern a country as cooking a small fish.
From ancient times to the present, Lao Zi's thought of governing the country has been valued by many emperors in China, such as Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, Song Huizong, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of Ming Dynasty, Emperor Wanli of Ming Dynasty, the emperor shunzhi of Qing Dynasty and so on.
Tao Te Ching
The famous saying "governing a big country, if cooking a little fresh" is still valued in contemporary China. A famous contemporary theorist in China once said: "To govern a country, we must have the consciousness of treading on thin ice and the relaxed mentality of governing a big country with small things."
Laozi's thought of governing the country also has certain influence in the west. When Ronald Reagan, the former president of the United States, delivered his State of the Union address during his term of office, he quoted a sentence from Laozi, "Governing a big country, if you cook a small fish", which triggered a craze to learn from Laozi in the United States.