Confucius said: "He who hears the Tao in the morning will die in the evening." What is its cultural connotation?
1. Get rid of the incorrect understanding of "He who hears the Tao in the morning will die in the evening"
Most people may understand it literally. For example, it can be understood as "I heard or understood a truth (or true knowledge) in the morning, and it was okay to die at night." Based on this understanding, if you can die after understanding a truth (or true knowledge), is it worth it? Clearly unreasonable and inappropriate. If you die every time you understand a truth, then there will indeed be too many truths to understand in your life, and you will have to die many times. And I have understood or understood the truth, not to die, but to do things better and implement them. Therefore, if we only understand it literally, we will overgeneralize and lose the meaning of culture and art. Chinese traditional culture has always had a lofty spirit and profound meaning, and we must understand its true meaning.
2. How to treat the "Tao" in the wise sayings
The other words and phrases in "He who hears the Tao in the morning will die in the evening" are easy to understand, such as "Chao" and "Evening" ” match, let’s understand “Tao”. We often say "Tao can be Tao but not Tao", "quiet and inactive" or "Zen enlightenment", etc. This shows the importance of "Tao" to our daily life. "Tao" refers to "all laws, standards, principles or true knowledge in the universe", etc.; secondly, it refers to "the way to realize certain moral standards or conceptual norms", such as humanism, the law of wolf nature or the three thousand principles. Daodao, etc., the focus is "reaching the direction of success". "Tao" in "The Analects" follows the moral standard of Confucian culture, "benevolence", which is "gentle, respectful, thrifty and accommodating". Mencius made it very clear in the Analects that Mencius was willing to "die" for "benevolence". This was the "Tao" characteristic of that era.
Confucius traveled around various countries throughout his life, not as an official, but only to practice "the Way". However, in his life, he never saw the implementation of "the Way of Benevolence" and could not see the situation of "the great rule of the world". Although Mencius worked hard for it, he still did not see the conclusion of "Tao" and morality, which was also determined by the factors of the period. This is the "method of loyalty" in Confucianism. Over the years, the exploiting classes have used the "law of loyalty" to regulate the world; modest gentlemen all regard the "law of loyalty" as the rule for self-cultivation and self-cultivation. Everyone always hears "talking about etiquette, justice and honesty", but now it sounds like a feudal society or hypocritical emotions. Therefore, "Tao" has different meanings in different periods of time. Nowadays it can be regarded as "great principles or true knowledge", but in ancient times it could be interpreted as "gentleness, courtesy, thrift and concessions".