Virtue does nothing without thinking, but virtue thinks for it. Ren Shang didn't think of this, ShangYi thought of it. If you don't respond, you throw it away. So, you lose your virtue, you lose your virtue, then you lose your benevolence, then you lose your righteousness, then you lose your righteousness. ..... Here is a popular translation by Chen Guying: People who go to "Germany" don't rely on Germany, so there is actually "Germany"; People who fall under "virtue" think that they will never leave their own virtue, so they have not reached "virtue". People who go to "Germany" follow nature and act unintentionally; People under "virtue" are natural and intentional. Benevolent people do it unintentionally; The righteous did something, and it was intentional. People attending the ceremony did something but didn't get a response, so they raised their arms and forced others to obey. Therefore, there is no virtue, no virtue and benevolence, no virtue and righteousness, and no righteousness and courtesy. ..... both seem to have some origins. Maybe Wen Zi, like Lao Tzu, is talking about a social degradation process. However, as far as we can see, the world of benevolence and righteousness in Wen Zi's eyes seems not too bad. It is nothing more than that leaders like to sing praises to themselves. After doing two or three practical things for the people, they quickly put gold on their faces and always brought solatium to the poor. (If it was in the later authoritarian society, the common people would fully show the symptoms of Stockholm syndrome in this case, tears could not stop, and the bones in their knees were completely softened. As for "courtesy", it is nothing more than a sign that people have a high and low official standard, at least more advanced than militarism. However, Wen Zi's last two sentences may have another meaning: Tao gives birth to virtue, and virtue gives birth to benevolence, so in the end, benevolence is actually a family. In this family, Tao is undoubtedly the master. As long as his old man moves, no matter whether he is virtuous or benevolent, he has to follow suit. If things develop like this, then benevolence and righteousness will not violate this Tao, but will be a derivative of it. Therefore, benevolence and righteousness should be criticized only if they are completely divorced from morality. If the above explanation holds, it seems that Wen Zi does not totally reject benevolence and righteousness. We might as well make an analogy according to this correct understanding: if we compare the four guys, Tao, Morality, Benevolence and Righteousness, to a tiger, Tao is the tiger's head, Morality is the tiger's trunk, and Benevolence and Righteousness are the tiger's butt and tail, then the reasonable action is: In which direction the head turns, the body and butt should follow, but if the butt and tail are independent of the head, they should not. Then, the next question is: how should the ass follow the head? What should I do if my ass is determined to leave my head? Under what circumstances does the tiger's ass become untouchable? Since when and where can the ass decide the head? Leaving these questions aside, we can see that Wen Zi's explanation of Tao and virtue, though somewhat mysterious, is much more practical than our usual concepts. Finally, summarize Wen Zi's central idea: "Wen Zi is the representative work of Wen Zi, a great thinker, revolutionary and educator in ancient China. Through the beautiful depiction of the ancient golden age, it profoundly exposed the hypocrisy and evil nature of Confucian ethics in the old society, deeply expressed sympathy for the broad masses of working people, and promoted ... "Oh, hehe, I'm sorry, I used to write central ideas when I was at school. Let's summarize it again. Simply put, the central idea is four words: conformity and contingency. -In Wen Zi, the words "extraordinary way" or "inaction" are actually these four words. Oh, it is worth thinking about the story in the Analects mentioned earlier: Lu renovated the national treasury, and Confucius' student Min Ziqian said, "Just do what you did before, so why bother to reform yourself?" Confucius commented: "Min Zikai usually doesn't talk much, but when he opens his mouth, he gets to the point." Isn't this the way to follow? (9) Huainanzi interprets Laozi-Short Stories, which has great wisdom to understand Laozi and Huang Lao's thoughts in the eyes of Han people. Wen Zi is just a small preface, and Huainanzi, a masterpiece, is absolutely indispensable. People who are familiar with Laozi have generally read three early teaching AIDS of Laozi: First, Han Feizi, in which Jie Lao Zhang and Yu Lao Zhang are all based on Laozi; The second is "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals", in which the thought of inaction is extremely rich; Thirdly, Huainanzi, especially "Tao should be taught", interprets the key chapters and sentences in Laozi in detail. The articles "Jie Lao" and "Yu Lao" in Han Feizi are controversial. Many people think it is the work of Han people, mixed with Han Feizi. Lv Chunqiu is also shrouded in mystery, while Huai Nan Zi is deeply rooted and uncontroversial. To say "the root is Hong Miao", firstly, from the editor's point of view, Liu An, King of Huainan, is the grandson of Liu Bang, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and the uncle of Liu Che, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. With the help of governors, he gathered thousands of intellectuals and created this epoch-making masterpiece. In this sense, Huainanzi can be called the second Lv Chunqiu. Second, in terms of academic history, Xu Dishan, the first authoritative figure in the study of Taoist history in China, strongly recommended this book, saying that Huainanzi is the academic successor of Laozi and Zhuangzi and the masterpiece of Taoist thought in Han Dynasty. The name Xu Dishan must be familiar to everyone. His Peanut was included in Chinese textbooks for primary schools, but many people don't know that he is an expert in the field of Taoist studies, just as many people don't know that Zhu Ziqing, who is famous for his prose at the same time, is an expert in classical literature research. Xu Dishan studied the development history of Taoism and thought that from Huai Nan Zi, the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in the pre-Qin period had been absorbed by Taoism in the early Han Dynasty-two points deserve our attention. First, Yin-Yang and Five Elements are originally independent systems, which have nothing to do with Zhouyi. Nowadays, people always think that it is the same thing to mention these things, which is a misunderstanding (see Zhouyi Jianghu for details); Second, the era of Huai Nan Zi is basically that of Dong Zhongshu. As I said before, Dong Zhongshu's "Confucianism" has a lot of yin and yang and five elements, and doesn't it also boil down a sage's Spring and Autumn Annals to yin and yang and five elements? Isn't this a mess for our future generations? Who is Confucianism and who is Taoism? We won't delve into this problem for the time being. Let's focus on the practice of Tao in Huai Nan Zi. "Tao should be trained" is an ancient version of "Little Story, Great Truth", except Flash. There are dozens of short stories, most of which are used to illustrate Laozi's famous sayings. Enlighteningly, these rendered famous sayings of Laozi are almost the same as today's popular version of Laozi, which partly shows that Laozi was basically shaped in the early Han Dynasty. In addition, Wei Yuan (who wrote the Map of the Sea Country) in the Qing Dynasty made a high evaluation of this part of Huai Nan Zi's quotation from Lao Zi, saying: "Among its 5,000-word chapters and sentences, the ancient books of Monk Guan and Fu Yi are the most flawed, while Huainan is the best." Wei Yuan has another meaning, which will be discussed later.