Love and kindness can cross all things without making a sound.

Original text:

Great love is speechless, love is good for all things without cries; the best is like water, water is good for all things without fighting. He lives in a place where everyone hates him, so he is close to the Tao. Live in a good place, have a good heart, be kind and benevolent, speak good faith, govern well, do good things, and act at good times. The husband does not fight, so there is no need for you.

Vernacular translation:

The kindest people are like water. Water is good at nourishing all things without competing with them. Staying in a place that no one likes, so it is closest to the "Tao". The kindest person is the best at choosing a place to live, his mind is good at keeping calm and unfathomable, he is good at being sincere, friendly and selfless in dealing with others, he is good at speaking and keeping his word, he is good at streamlining the government, he is good at governing the country, and he is good at giving full play to his work. The director is good at seizing the opportunity in action. What the most kind people do is precisely because of their indisputable virtue, so there is no fault and no blame.

This article comes from the expanded material of Laozi's "Tao Te Ching·Chapter 8" in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Writing background:

"Tao Te Ching", Lao Tzu's Spring and Autumn Period ( Li Er)'s philosophical works, also known as "The Tao Te Ching", "Laozi", "Five Thousand Words", and "Laozi's Five Thousand Essays", is a work written by the pre-Qin philosophers in ancient China before they split up, and is the philosophical thought of Taoism. important source. The Tao Te Ching is divided into two parts. The original text is the first part "De Jing" and the second part "Tao Jing". They are not divided into chapters. Later, they were changed to "Tao Jing". Chapter 37 comes first, and after chapter 38, it is "De Jing" and divided into chapters. For 81 chapters.

Laozi was born in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The environment at that time was that the Zhou Dynasty was weak, and wars continued among the various princes to compete for dominance. The severe turmoil and changes made Laozi witness the suffering of the people. As the guardian of Tibet in the Zhou Dynasty, he put forward a series of ideas for governing the country and bringing peace to the people.

Yin Xi, the commander of Hangu Pass, also played a huge role in the completion of the Tao Te Ching. When he was young, he was fond of astronomy, loved reading ancient books, and was deeply cultivated. Sima Qian recorded in "Historical Records of Laozi" that Laozi "lived in the Zhou Dynasty for a long time, and saw the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, so he left. When he arrived at the Pass, Guan (order) Yin Xi said: "The master is about to hide, and he forces me to write a book, so Laozi talks about morality. "Five thousand words have gone away, but I don't know the end." Yin Xi moved Laozi, and Laozi used his own life experience and the rise and fall of the dynasty, the safety and misfortune of the people as a guide to trace its origins, and wrote two articles, ** *Five thousand words, the Tao Te Ching.

Laozi clarified in the opening chapter of "Tao Te Ching": "Tao can be Tao, but it is not Tao. Name can be named, but it is not named. Wu is named the beginning of heaven and earth; Being is named the mother of all things. Therefore, there is always nothing. The desire to observe its wonders; the desire to observe its merits. These two have the same origin and different names, and they are both mysterious and mysterious. This is the general concept of "Tao" by Laozi. Description: The Tao was not the general Tao of the society at that time, that is, the Tao of human relations and common sense, nor was it a Tao that could be named by people at that time.

In Laozi, "Tao" has transcended secular social life and is closer to the Tao of natural laws, because the foundation and mother source of all things in the world lies in "Tao", starting from Tao, "Tao gives birth to one, Two is born, two is born, three is born, and three is born of all things.” Therefore, Laozi uses "mysterious and mysterious" to describe the particularity and profundity of Tao. In fact, although this "Tao" "cannot be seen by looking at it", "cannot be heard by listening", and "cannot be grasped by grunting", it is The Tao taught by Laozi is not far away from others. Here, Laozi uses "Xuan" to emphasize the difference between the Tao he spoke and the Tao taught by the society at that time, and to elaborate on the transcendence and foundation of the Tao he spoke.