Recently, I casually read "Zhuangzi" and found that many common idioms come from this, but now the meaning is very different. Seven of these idioms, which are quite different from ancient and modern, are now compiled, which can facilitate our understanding of their original origins and further understanding of zhuangzi's core.
The material is difficult to use
"The great difficulty of using the material" comes from "Zhuangzi Getaway": "Huizi said of Zhuangzi: 'I have a big tree, and people call it a tree.'" Its large book is bloated without rope ink, and its small branches are curled without rules. Standing, the craftsman does not care. The words of the present son are great and useless, and all go with them. Keiko used the analogy of a large tree that did not conform to the rules of rope ink to criticize Zhuangzi's words as large and useless. Zhuangzi retorted, "There is a big tree in Imako, and it is useless to suffer from it, so why not have the tree in the land of nothingness, the wilderness of Guangmo, as if wandering on the side of nothing, sleeping freely under it?" No axe, harmless, useless, anything to be troubled! "Zhuangzi's meaning, that is, the material is large and useful, that is, useless, what harm is there?" This fully reflects Zhuangzi's Taoist philosophy of doing nothing.
The original text is "material is useless", and then evolved into "material (talent) is difficult to use", neither the material is useless as criticized by Keiko, nor is it the great usefulness of the material that Zhuangzi agrees with, but the material is useful and difficult to use, and now it mostly refers to the complaint that Huai Cai did not encounter. Regarding the change in the meaning of this idiom, some people believe that the Confucian concept of life in the world plays an important role, but it is also thought that future generations can agree that "there is nothing to use, and it is difficult to be at peace!" "How rare are the people."
(Qing) Jin Tingbiao Hao Liang Tu Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Sinking fish and falling geese
When many people see this word today, they immediately think of beauty, as if fish and geese have exactly the same aesthetic standards as we humans.
However, Zhuangzi really does not mean this. "Zhuangzi Qiwu Theory": "Mao Yan and Li Ji, the beauty of people, the depth of fish seeing, the high flying of birds, the determination of elk, who know the right color of the world?" Zhuangzi originally meant that people and fish, birds, elk are different types, there is no common standard between each other, we think of the beauty, fish, birds, elk but do not know that it is a beautiful woman, because whether it is a beautiful woman or an ugly woman, as long as they see people, they must "go deep", "fly high" and "decide" to avoid being hurt by humans. Later evolved "sinking fish and falling geese", it is estimated that it was influenced by idioms such as "closed moon shy flowers", which was used to describe the beauty of women, and even small animals dwarfed after seeing them, and immediately fled to avoid becoming a foil.
Xi Shi is one of the "four beauties" of China, naturally also recognized by Zhuangzi, in Zhuangzi's "Theory of Qi" and "Heavenly Fortune" have appeared, the story of "Dong Shi Xiao Yi" is also from Zhuangzi, but Zhuangzi is not ridiculed because Dong Shi is not beautiful, but Dong Shi's "unnatural", because in Zhuangzi's eyes, "Li and Xi Shi, the Tao tong is one".
In the "Theory of Qi Things", it is said: "The Tao is made of deeds, and things are said to be natural." Evil? Of course. Evil or not? Otherwise, it is not. Things are inherently what is, things are inherently possible. Nothing is not, nothing is indispensable. Therefore, it is to lift the Ying and the Yang, the Li and the Xi Shi, the Restoration of the Monster, and the Dao Tong as one. Its division is also, and its division is also; its division is also destroyed. Whatever is accomplished and destroyed, it is compounded into one. ”
In Zhuangzi's view, the ugly woman and the beautiful Xi Shi can be one from the perspective of the Tao.
Yu Ming Zhuangzi small statue
Asasan Go-shi
Nowadays, the term "three or four" is mainly used to mean "capricious and changeable", but if you look at the original text, you will find that the meaning is too different. "Zhuangzi Qiwu Theory": "The sniper gong endowed the man with the sword, that is, 'Toward the three and the twilight of the fourth.' The snipers were angry. He said, 'Then it will be four and three.' 'Everyone is pleased. The name is not lost and the mood is used, and it is also because it is also. It is a saint and a right and a wrong, and it is two lines. "The sniper macaques are not happy with getting three acorns in the morning and four at night. But if they were replaced by four in the morning and three in the evening, they happily agreed. Looking at things from the point of view of the Tao, natural phenomena are inherently identical, and there is no question of what is right and wrong. What you think is right is not necessarily true; what you think is wrong is not necessarily true. In short, it's just a bias. "Evil? Of course; evil or not? Otherwise, it is not. "One affirms this thing on the basis of subjective ideas, on the basis of certain conditions, or one can deny this thing on the basis of only some conditions.
In Zhuangzi's view, the monkeys are angry at "chao three twilight four" and yue "chao four twilight three" is out of this subjective. Although this is Zhuangzi's allusion to the hundred families at that time, it is like a group of monkeys fighting for "three twilights and four twilights" and "four twilights", with their own subjective prejudices to provoke arguments everywhere, but think about ourselves at the moment, why are we not one of the quarrelsome monkeys? Zhuangzi's "Chao San Twilight Four" illustrates a philosophical principle, and the current "Chao San Twilight Four" is generally used as a derogatory term.
Drum pot of kin
"Zhuangzi's wife dies, Huizi hangs him, and Zhuangzi sings in a drum and pot." The original "drum pot and song" later evolved into a "drum pot relative" that expressed the pain of widowhood, and the difference between "song" and "qi" led to a far difference between the original meaning and the new meaning.
For the death of his wife, Zhuangzi made a "drum and sing" move of its own reason. Zhuang Ziyun: "It is his beginning and death, how can I be without generalization!" Look at its beginning and there is no birth, not in vain, and in the formless, not in the formless, and in the absence of breath. Between the miscellaneous mangosteen, there is qi, qi becomes tangible, and deformation is born. Now the death of the change is the same as the spring, autumn, winter and summer at four o'clock. And the man slept in the huge room, and I wept silently, thinking that I did not know how to die, so I stopped. ("Zhuangzi Zhile") This reflects Zhuangzi's attitude towards life and death. Feng Youlan once said: "When Zhuangzi was ignorant, he mourned; when he woke up, he no longer mourned." This story is told in order to enlighten the person who is seriously affectionate, so that he can clearly dispel the heavy burden of feelings. The change from "song" to "qi" is estimated to be an abnormal act of secular people who cannot tolerate the death of their wives and sing songs, and will evolve into "relatives of drums and pots".
"To give evil is to know that it is not to be deceived!" To give evil to those who know evil death is not weak and do not know the evil of return! Among them, "weak mourning" refers to young people who have left their homes. For Zhuangzi, to live is to run away from home, and to die is to return home. The Tang Dynasty Taoist scholar Cheng Xuanying said: "The weak are weak in age, and the words of loss are lost." It is said that the youth was in turmoil, lost Sangzi, and then settled on other lands and did not know where to return, which is said to be weak and lost. Nothing is called life; what is not there is nothing is called death. If he loves to live and die evilly, is it not weak and lost that he does not know how to return to evil! The meaning of these two sentences is, how can I know that greed is not a kind of confusion in the world? How can I know that evil death is not the mentality of a wanderer who has wandered away from home and does not know how to return to his hometown? The metaphor of "weak mourning and not knowing home" reveals Zhuangzi's lament for the world's guests living in the present moment, especially a "return" word, which expresses Zhuangzi's frank attitude towards death.
Transfixed
"Although the chicken has a song, it has not changed, and it looks like a wooden chicken, and its virtue is complete, and the other chicken has no dare to respond, but it is the opposite." ("Zhuangzi Dasheng") Ji Yuzi domesticated fighting cocks for King Xuan of Zhou. Ten days later, King Xuan of Zhou asked him if he had tamed the chicken well, and Ji Zizi said, "Not yet, I am still very proud!" Ten days later, King Xuanwang of Zhou asked again, and Ji Xiangzi replied that it was not enough, because the reason was that the cockfights screamed as soon as they heard the noise, and jumped when they saw the shadow, which was very impetuous. Ten days later, when King Xuan of Zhou asked, Ji Xiangzi still said no, and at this time the cockfighting was still arrogant. Another ten days passed, and Ji Xiangzi said to King Xuan of Zhou: The cockfight has been domesticated, because now this chicken has been "dequan", the look is silent, looking like a wooden chicken, and the other chickens do not dare to face it squarely when they see it, so they turn around and run. From this, it can be seen that Zhuangzi's original meaning is that the indifferent wooden chicken is the highest realm that cockfighting should pursue. This idiom is now used to describe people who are stupid and somewhat stupid, and should be said to be a derogatory term.
If you think about it, not only should the "fighter in the rooster" be a "wooden chicken", but those who focus on work are estimated to have a lot of "wooden chickens" in life. The whole text of "Dasheng" talks about the need for health care to be "fully god", and what is the matter of the world that does not require "full god"?
Get the fish and forget it
"Zhuangzi Foreign Objects": "Therefore the Tsuen is in the fish, gets the fish and forgets the Tsuen; the hoof is in the rabbit, and the rabbit forgets the hoof; the speaker cares, and the proud forgets the word." Do I have to forget the people who speak to them? ”
"荃" is also written as "筌", which refers to the bamboo vessels used for fishing. "Forgetting the fish" literally means that when the fish is caught, it forgets the tools of fishing, and later evolves into ungrateful after achieving the goal or success. For example, Ji Kang's "Gifting Xiu to Join the Army": "Jia Bi fishing, get the fish to forget the raft." "Get the fish and forget the raft" already has the meaning of "crossing the river and demolishing the bridge".
What Zhuangzi originally wanted to say was that the ends and means were different, and as long as the profound righteousness was understood, the words that expressed it could be forgotten. But the secular understanding is that it takes the tools of fishing to catch the fish, and when you get the fish, you forget what to catch, which is a typical performance of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge and being ungrateful. Think about zhuangzi's original meaning, not only understand the interpretation of the world, but also admire Zhuangzi's understanding of the means and purposes of more than two thousand years ago.
Ming Liu Jie Algae Fish Figure Collection of cleveland Museum of Art
Do more for those who can
"The able and the laborers" are derived from the "Zhuangzi Lieyukou": "The skillful people work and know the worries, the incompetents have nothing to ask for, they are full of food and Ao You, if they are not tied to the boat, the vain and Ao You are also." ”
Zhuangzi did not recognize "the skillful labor, the knowledge (wisdom) of the worry", Zhuangzi praised the "incompetent people have nothing to ask for", which fully reflects Zhuangzi's yearning for the spiritual world of no hanging and no obstacles, and idleness.
Confucianism, however, is extremely disapproval of those who do nothing, and in the Analects of Gongyechang, "Zaiyu Sleeps in the Day." Zi Yue: 'Rotten wood cannot be carved, and the wall of dung cannot be carved!' Yu Yu and What curse? The Son said, "I began with men, and listened to them and believed in their deeds; now I am with men, listening to their words and judging their deeds." Yu Give and Change yes. Just because Zaiyu slept in the daytime, Confucius scolded him and completely changed his standard of judgment of his students- "listen to what he says and watch his deeds."
Now "capable people work more" means that capable people do more things, work more, or people with strong ability pay more, with full positive color, and Zhuangzi's original meaning can be described as far from Zhuangzi. At present, the so-called "lying flat" of young people may not only be "Buddhist", but also have a bit of Zhuangzi spirit.
Zhuangzi is more than two thousand years away from us, and the idioms in it can be handed down, which shows the importance of the ancestors to this, and it is inevitable that different meanings will arise in use. Of course, there is some interpretation from the perspective of language development, but today we can use these familiar words to re-understand the spirit of Zhuangzi, which is also a comfort.
Many people say that Zhuangzi is an artist, and the beauty, nature, and freedom of Zhuangzi's writing are far beyond the title of a philosopher. In this real world where "the world is bustling, all are for profit; the world is bustling, all are for profit", human beings who have been scaled and wounded have entered Zhuangzi's world, whether it is comfort or escape, at least let us feel that the world is still beautiful.