Yang, the original meaning is a generic name for all plants of the willow family Poplar family.
In classical texts, "Yang" and "Liu" are synonymous, and "Yang" is a kind of "willow", that is, Pu Liu, the earliest Chinese dictionary "Erya" said: "Yang, Pu Liu also." Oh, Sawagi also. Tamarind, River Willow also. "Yang, Yang, and Tamari are all referred to as willows.
In the modern botanical sense, Yang is often called "poplar" and "poplar" in ancient China, and is often collectively referred to as poplar tree. Modern yang is said to be a poplar tree.
Yang, also short for the philosopher Yang Zhu and his academic faction in the early Warring States period, was also used as a country name in the Zhou Dynasty.
With Yang as his surname, he is full of philosophy and poetry.
Illustration of Famous Objects in the Poetry Sutra : Poplar Branches
A tall Yang
Poplar trees, bathed in sunshine and soaring in the spring wind, are in harmony with the yang and the exhilarating spring.
Poplar trees, the earliest and yang, have some origins.
Straight branches, all of which are always upward, close together, become a bunch, and do not slant out; the wide leaves, also pieces upwards, are almost not oblique, let alone upside down. The poplar tree, also known as the yang tree, represents a tall and tall tree.
Stubborn growth, hard work, facing the sun, towering, indomitable, poplar trees are still the earliest trees that can form shading effects, and were once called yang trees in ancient times.
The traditional character for "Yang" is written in "楊", the right part of "昜", which is taken from the traditional Yang of "Yang". "昜" is the same as "yang", which means that the sun rises and the sun shines.
The posture is high, full of sunshine, full of courage, poplar trees are deeply valued by the ancients. They continued to plant poplars, and in the process of planting, they discovered more advantages of poplars. For example, strong adaptability, fast growth rate, can quickly become a forest; wind and sand storms, to prevent soil erosion, absorb waste gas, can be widely used in ecology, agricultural and forestry shelter forests and industrial timber forests; can become road greening, garden landscape of tree species, poplar leaves can also clear heat, detoxification, anti-inflammatory water and so on.
As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was named after the poplar tree, known historically as yang guo (about the area of present-day Hongdong County, Shanxi Province). In Yang Guozhong, poplar trees can be seen everywhere. Poplar trees, as a result, have become synonymous with flourishing trees and the like.
The State of Yang was a princely state of the Zhou Dynasty, the geographical location was dangerous, at that time there were often Xiongnu attacks, in order to prevent the attack of the Xiongnu, King Xuan of Zhou sealed his son Shang Father to the State of Yang, as the Marquis of Yang. Around the sixteenth year of the Jin Dynasty (c. 661 BC), the Yang Kingdom of Shang's father was destroyed by the Duke Xian of Jin, who enfeoffed the State of Yang to his younger brother Bo Qiao, who was the second son of Duke Ji of Jin, also known as Wen Shi, and Qiao Qiao, also known as Qiao qiao and Qiao because his fief was in the State of Yang. The ancient book "Shiben" says: "After Tang Shuyu, the third son of King Wu of Zhou, he was born to Duke Wu of Jin and was born to Bo qiao, returned to Zhou Tianzi, and was enfeoffed to Yang Hou. ”
The surname Yang was also born from the Yang Kingdom, and Yang Boqiao was revered as the ancestor of the Yang surname, which belonged to the country as a surname. Of course, the ancestor of this "country as a surname" should be calculated earlier. There are historical records that before King Xuan of Zhou's son Shang Father became the Marquis of Yang, the Yang Kingdom existed, and at that time, out of love for the Yang tree, there were also people with Yang as the surname, and the Shang Father also preceded Yang Boqiao as the Marquis in the Yang Kingdom, and they were all called the ancestors of the Yang surname.
Those with the surname Yang revered Yang Boqiao as the ancestor of the Yang surname, perhaps because "Jin is great".
Being strong can be a reason for a lot of things.
The poplar trees related to the Yang surname also have a powerful aura. In particular, when the poplar trees are neatly laid out in rows, standing in the cold wind and barren land, with their own abundance, illuminating in all directions, the majestic momentum is amazing.
Riverside Poplar Forest North Evening New Vision Courtesy of Photo
2. The Parable of Yang Zhu
However, the yang of the atmosphere would not have thought that he would be related to an idiom that describes people as extremely miserly and selfish, an idiom that has been passed down through the ages and is called "a dime".
To be precise, this idiom was born from Yang Zhu, a thinker and philosopher in the early Warring States period, ziju, and a Native of Wei (a Qin state).
"A dime is not pulled out" was first derived from "Mencius, Dedication": "Yang Zi takes it for me, pulls out a dime and benefits the world, not for it." Mozi and love, mo top heel, benefit the world, for it. People summed up the idiom "a dime" accordingly. Yang Zi is Yang Zhu. Yang is also the abbreviation for Yang Zhu and his academic faction.
This is the remarks of the philosopher, thinker, and educator Mencius (c. 372 BC to 289 BC) of the Warring States period. Mencius, also known as Zi You, was a representative of the Confucian school after Confucius and before Xunzi. Mencius summed up the comparison between Yang Zhu and Mozi: Yang Zi advocated "for me", even if he plucked a hair from his body and could benefit the people of the world, he would not do it; while Mozi advocated "simultaneous love", as long as it was beneficial to the people of the world, even if he polished the top of his head and broke the footboard, he was willing to be willing.
Mozi and Yang Zhu are considered contemporaries, Mozi (476 BC or 480 BC to 390 BC or 420 BC), named Zhai, was a descendant of the Song nobleman Muyi in the early Warring States period, who served as a Song guo doctor, a thinker, educator, scientist, military, founder and main representative of the Mojia school. Mozi put forward the views of "simultaneous love", "non-attack", "Shangxian" and "Shangtong", with simultaneous love as the core, and use and Shangxian as the fulcrum, and created a set of scientific theories with geometry, physics, and optics as outstanding achievements.
The Mojia doctrine was very influential in the pre-Qin period, and was called "Xianxue" together with Confucianism, and was called "non-Confucian that is, ink". Mozi's "simultaneous love" includes equality and fraternity, he requires that kings, fathers and sons, and brothers should all love each other on the basis of equality, love others as if they were loving themselves, and believe that the phenomenon of strong and weak, rich and insulting, and noble and arrogant in society is caused by the lack of love between people in the world. He opposed war and demanded peace.
Therefore, comparing Yang Zhu's "no dime" alone, it seems to be how extremely selfish and ruthless, just pulling out a hair of oneself can benefit the world, and they are not willing to do it. It is precisely because of this that Yang Zhu has also been criticized, many people regard him as a miser, and his theory has been reduced to refusing to pull out even a hair.
In fact, the complete expression of Yang Zhu's words is: "The ancient people lost a millimeter of profit and the world did not take it, and the world did not take it." No one loses a single bit, everyone is unfavorable to the world, and the world is ruled. "He refuses to give a single hair for the benefit of the world; he does not want to use all the possessions of the world to feed his body." In Yang Zhu's proposition, these two aspects are the core, everyone should not pull out a dime to benefit the world, and no one should covet the world's great interests and pluck a hair in the world, so that the world can be well governed.
Yang Zhu believes that people and society should be equal, and no one should harm anyone to satisfy the other party. Maintain and conform to the nature of nature and the authenticity of the human body given by nature, protect and value one's own life, guarantee and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the individual, and at the same time respect the lives and rights of others. People and society do not invade and harm each other, self-love, self-respect, self-reliance, each in peace, governing the interior and self-esteem, the world will be peaceful and uneventful.
This is Yang Zhu's ideas of "noble life", "self-respect", and "all-round fidelity", and "Mencius's Dedication to the Heart" and the idiom "No Dime" from it only one-sidedly interpret or extend Yang Zhu's "noble self", without comprehensively explaining Yang Zhu's "knowing the world and not taking it all".
The true Yang Zhu thought has a strength beyond the poplar tree. Compared with some modern people, especially those who really do not pull out a dime to seek improper self-interest, harm others and benefit themselves, or harm others and harm themselves, Yang Zhu's ideological realm is very high.
3. The rule of the world
The Yangzhu School is unique among the hundreds of sons in the pre-Qin period. It's like a poplar tree standing tall in the sun, which is eye-catching.
Yang Zhu also has a special feature, that is, he himself did not leave any writings, and all his words that we know are scattered from books such as Liezi, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Han Feizi, and Lü Shi Chunqiu.
The correct understanding and connotation of "not pulling out a dime" is also expressed by his student Meng Sunyang, and the Taoist, thinker, philosopher, writer, and educator Liezi (about 450 BC to 375 BC) recorded it in the Liezi Yang Zhu in the early Warring States period.
"Liezi"
The bird is the bird slippery, which is the high foot of mozi. On that day, the poplar leaves were fluttering happily, like the sun gently brushing people's faces. Bird Slipper asked Yang Zhu, "Take a hair from your body to relieve the world, what are you doing?" Yang Zhu said: "The world is not something that can be relieved by a single hair." Bird Slipper asked, "If you can do relief, why?" Yang Zhu did not say a word, directly left, and made it clear that he did not bother to pay attention to him. Poultry sliding went to find Yang Zhu's student Meng Sunyang. Meng Sunyang analyzed it layer by layer, and made Yang Zhu's good intentions clear. He first asked the bird slip two questions: "If someone violates your muscle skin, such as squashing you, it will make you get ten thousand gold, what do you do?" "If someone cuts off your body, like a leg, and you get a country, what do you do?" The first question, the bird slippery cheerfully said dry, the second problem, the bird slippery silent. Meng Sunyang then pointed out the key points: a millihair is smaller than the skin, the skin is smaller than the body, but the skin is composed of a millihair, the body is composed of a piece of skin, a millihair is originally a part of the whole body, is it because it is small, can it be the same thing?
Meng Sunyang, who has strong logical thinking ability, and The straight and cute bird slip make this dialogue wonderful and interesting. Everyone's "for me" is based on "not hurting people" and "not invading things". In Yang Zhu's eyes, there was always one person after another. Only when there are people can we have the world and benefit the world. Man is the main body that constitutes society, and "for me" is to ensure the existence of each individual, so as to ensure the existence of society and the state. The rows of poplar trees in the sunlight created a powerful aura, relying on the independent growth of the poplars?
Yang Zhu's ideas were still favored by many people, even if he did not leave a work, but the influence of his doctrine was as great as that of Mozi. During the Warring States period, there was a saying that "if the words of the world do not return to Yang, they will return to ink". In the "Mencius Teng Wen Gongxia", we can also see the words "Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai's words are in the world". That is to say, for a period of time after Confucius's death, the world's speech was actually divided into those in favor of Yang Zhu and those in favor of Mozi.
Of course, Yang Zhu's thinking has limitations. "Everyone does not lose a single bit, everyone is unfavorable to the world, and the world is ruled", which has a romantic and idealistic color that is beyond reality, is a good wish, but it cannot solve all practical problems. If Yang Zhu's political theories are popularized, the society may not necessarily be as good as he thinks.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought and a hundred flowers bloomed, but they left a deep imprint in our hearts. What a moving presence that was. Everyone can express their voice, even if there is debate, even if it is refuted, even if it is not understood, it cannot stop the freedom of the heart. That kind of release is the poplar tree embracing the sun.
Yang Zhu's "for me", Mozi's "both love", Mencius's "benevolent government" and "the people's nobles and gentlemen", although each has its own opinion, each occupies a faction, and has its own reason, but the essence of its exploration is the same: for the world, it is a "rule" word, and all hope for "the great rule of the world"; for individuals, it is a "love" word. Love yourself, love others, and love others as you love yourself. Loving yourself is, after all, the beginning of a lifelong romance.
In this world, nothing can touch people's hearts more than love. Love, like the stars in the dark night, has edges and angles, and always shines. (Editor-in-charge: Shen Feng)