We often hear such a saying in life: there are no rules, no squares. In fact, it is easy to understand, it is difficult to draw a standard circle without a compass, and it is difficult to draw a straight line without a ruler. And the deeper meaning of this sentence is that if you don't follow the rules, you can't do anything. In Chinese, the use of the two measuring tools of "rules" to represent moral law is really profound. So you know what? In the portraits of Fuxi Nuwa drawn by many ancients unearthed in China today, it is always Fuxi holding a curved ruler and Nuwa holding a compass, which is compared with other gods holding a warrior holding a stone hammer and pedaling the Hot Wheel, and the painting style is very strange. So why did the ancients paint Fuxi and Nuwa like this?
We all know that the status of Fuxi and Nüwa in ancient Chinese mythology is extremely high. They are both Chinese creation gods, brothers and sisters combined to create human beings, so in the portrait of Fuxi Nuwa that we see, the two gods are often human-faced snake tails, and the snake tails are intertwined, symbolizing their union to bring human beings to the world.
And the ancients let these two gods each have rules in their hands, which must also have a deep meaning. The ancients believed that the heavens were round, and there were no rules and no squares, so letting Fuxi and Nuwa each hold a rule, in fact, it symbolized that these two creator gods created a world for us to multiply.
Moreover, rules were the way of all things in the hearts of the ancients. The Han Feizi, the Book of Rites, and the Mozi all mention the importance of measuring the Fa for human life. This is not only reflected in the real weights and measures, rules are also synonymous with standard law, if everyone does not follow the rules, then social governance will be a mess. Therefore, when Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he first unified the weights and measures of the whole country, not only to help the economic circulation of various places in the future, but also to declare that the world, he is the person who is determined by the standard law, and everyone in the world will also follow the law in the future.
Since the invention of rules and manners, the ancients completely broke away from the image of barbarians, began to move closer to science, and since then everything has been done according to the standard, with a set of rules. For the ancients, who were still in the period of civilization development, it was a kind of faith and a kind of worship. When painting and making utensils, there is no need to imagine, but there is a tool to rely on, which is the first enlightenment of the ancient people for the image of rules, after which the chaotic social rules are gradually replaced by a set of fixed standards. Therefore, when the ancients painted, they let the Creator God hold the rules and manners, which actually symbolized their yearning for science.
For us now, no matter what we do, we must also have a set of rules and manners in our hearts. Doing things on your own freedom alone is untenable in society. People are social people, we only do things according to the "rules", and at the same time have the smooth response of "rules", in order to do more with less and achieve success.