Heaven and earth are born with me
Among the Taoist thinkers, Zhuangzi is the closest to ordinary people. His language is unbridled, his imagination is rich and peculiar, and his expression is flexible and changeable. He was able to write subtle and indescribable philosophies fascinatingly, and his texts were called "the philosophy of literature, the literature of philosophy", which still brings great aesthetic enjoyment to us today.
Zhuangzi's philosophical concepts have many aspects, how to look at absorption dialectically, test our wisdom and ability. The positive and deep side of his thinking can provide us with extremely rich nutrients today, such as his majestic and robust outlook on life and cosmology, "heaven and earth are born with me, and all things are one with me", which elevates the value of individual life that many people think is small to the lofty and vast spiritual field, breaks the truth essence of man and nature belonging to the community of life, especially can soothe people's hearts, and especially inspire life to move forward with their heads held high.
The excellent traditional Chinese culture, including "Zhuangzi", is the root of our nation, and the ideological concepts, humanistic spirit and moral norms it contains are not only the core of our Chinese thoughts and spirits, but also have important value for solving human problems.
In the new era, we should not be afraid to "look back on the past", enter and exit the classics of excellent traditional culture, extract and display those wonderful and vitality-rich spiritual identities, and extract and display the cultural essence of excellent traditional culture with contemporary value and world significance. When we continue to obtain new discoveries, new revelations, and new nourishment from classical wisdom, traditional culture is no longer distant, static, and distant, but deeply integrated with the "contemporary" in which we live. (Liu Gonghu)
Professor Chen Yinchi of Fudan University: Zhuangzi will not refuse mobile phones and the Internet
"Zhuangzi Lecture Notes" by Chen Yingchi by Zhonghua Bookstore
Professor Chen Yinchi of the Department of Chinese of Fudan University.
"The real classics are in constant interpretation."
Professor Chen Yinchi of Fudan University wrote this sentence at the end of his "Zhuangzi Lecture Notes". As one of the leading scholars in the field of Zhuangzi research in China, his "Zhuangzi Intensive Reading" course is one of the most popular courses at Fudan University, and this book is the essence of his teaching of Zhuangzi for twenty years.
In the 21st century, why should we read Zhuangzi? What is Zhuangzi's position on the world's ideological and cultural map? If Zhuangzi "crossed" to this day, how would he examine himself and the world?
With these questions, not long ago, Reading + Interviewed Professor Chen Yinchi.
Zhuangzi contributed more than 50 idioms, and we meet him every day
Chen Yinchi believes that "Confucianism and Taoism complement each other" constitute the spiritual tradition of Chinese culture, and almost every ancient scholar's heart hides Confucianism on the one hand and Taoism on the other--when he developed, he was a Confucian, and when he fell into a tuo, he became a Taoist, and Bai Juyi was a typical example. "Taoism" is largely represented by Zhuangzi, and as one of the most important spiritual traditions in China, we meet Zhuangzi almost every day, which has reached the level of "daily use without awareness".
For example, Zhuangzi created more than 50 idioms: Pengcheng Wanli, Fu Yu, Yue Li Dai Ku, Great Difference, Unkindness, Sinking Fish and Falling Geese, Chao San Twilight Four, Ku Ding Xie Niu, Hesitation and Ambition, Wandering With More Than a Blade, Passing On The Fire, Mantis Arm as a Car, Xiang Yi Mo, Mo Ren Ren Ren, Virtual and Wei Snake, Broken Crane Continuous, Knowing One And Not Knowing The Second, Great Confusion, Handicap, Unowned, Dong Shi Gong, Tu Gu Na Xin, Wang Yang Xing Sigh, Laughing Generously, Frog at the Bottom of the Well, Pipe Peeping Cone Finger, Handan Toddler, Dumb Wooden Chicken, Ghost Axe Divine Worker , Gentleman's Friendship, Speciousness, Praying Mantis Catching Cicada Yellow Finches Behind, Following the Trend, White Colt Crossing the Gap, Every Time the Situation, Empty Valley Foot Sound, Luck into the Wind, Reckless Cracking, ObliviousNess, Forgetting the Fish, Overstretched, Shaking Lips and Tongues, Fighting In Court, Capable People More Labor, Exploring Li Dezhu, Learning Rich Five Cars, Chestnut Wind and Rain. In addition, the famous allegory "self-contradiction" in Imami's Han Feizi may also come from the Zhuangzi text.
These idioms are still active in the expression of Chinese today, and although the meaning of some words is completely different from the original meaning of Zhuangzi, it precisely shows the malleability and vitality of its language, which is one of the classic manifestations.
"Zhuangzi" has achieved a breakthrough in space, time and culture
The opening chapter of the ancient classics is very interesting, the opening chapter of the Analects is "learning and learning from time to time, and enjoying it", presenting the image of an educator; the opening chapter of Mencius is Mencius's statement of seeing King Hui of Liang, highlighting the image of a politician. Zhuangzi begins with "Kunpeng spreading its wings": "There is a fish in the north, and its name is Kun. The size of the carp is unknown to thousands of miles. Transformed into a bird, its name is Peng. Peng's back, I don't know how many thousands of miles. Angry and flying, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky... The water strikes three thousand miles, and the one who shakes up is ninety thousand miles. ”
What is the significance of this opening?
Chen Yinchi believes that this is a description of the spiritual realm and a great expansion of the spatial dimension. As Hugo said, "What is wider than the continent is the sea, what is wider than the sea is the sky, and what is broader than the sky is the human mind." "When you ascend to a higher realm of transcendence, everything itself has not changed, but its meaning is different. There is a parable in Zhuangzi: there is a country in the left corner of the snail, and there is a country on the right corner, and there is a constant war between the two countries, and thousands of people die. In the eyes of these two countries on the snail's horn, the contenders are naturally very important, and they do not hesitate to pay a heavy price for their lives; but in our opinion, such a fight is really ridiculous.
Chen Yinchi specifically pointed out: This is not "taking a step back from the sea and the sky", but the heart after "wanting to be poor and go to a higher level" is suddenly open-minded.
There is not only a space breakthrough, but also a time breakthrough. Zhuangzi once said: "The morning fungus does not know obscurity, and the cockroach does not know spring and autumn." "The mushrooms that are born in the morning and die in the evening will not know the time of a month; the cicadas that are born in spring and die in summer, and the cicadas that are born in summer and die in autumn will not know the time of the year." "Zhuangzi" uses this to remind people to break through their own limitations in the dimension of time. The Confucian idea of this is to work hard, to leave behind good deeds and good deeds, and to still benefit the people and society behind them. Zhuangzi hopes to observe our lives from a higher perspective, not to be confined to the current fly camp dogs. There are not so many obstacles in life that cannot be overcome, and there are not so many attachments that cannot be let go.
Su Dongpo's famous sentence "Long hate this body is not me, when to forget the camp" actually comes from Zhuangzi, "Ru body is not Ru you also ... It is the form of heaven and earth", that is, your body is not what you really have, but only such a form that the nature of heaven and earth has temporarily entrusted to you; since this is the case, you may as well accept the fact that "all ru form, embrace Ru sheng, do not make Ru si worry about camp", save your body and life well, do not worry, work hard, and live this life naturally.
In Chen Yinchi's view, what is even more remarkable is the cultural breakthrough of "Zhuangzi".
The famous saying in "Zhuangzi Qiushui" is that "the well frog cannot speak to the sea, but to the void; the summer worm cannot speak to the ice, but to the time; the qushi cannot speak to the Taoist and be bound to the teaching." "The frog in the well cannot make it understand the sea because it is limited by geography; the summer bug cannot make it understand the ice and snow because it is limited by the seasons; the man who is stubborn in prejudice cannot make him understand the road because he is limited by the education he has received. The first two sentences point out the limitations of the two dimensions of space and time, and the last sentence points out the limitations of knowledge, upbringing or culture.
There is a fable in "Zhuangzi Getaway" that some people in the Song Dynasty went to Yuedi in the south to sell top hat dresses, but the hair of the Yue people was cut short, tattooed and nude, and the top hat dress and the like were completely superfluous to them.
If you try to sell your own culture without conditions, is it not trapped in your own cultural perception? Chen Yinchi believes that this understanding of multiculturalism and cultural relativity was very sensitive and advanced in Zhuangzi's time. Zhuangzi opened himself up to the nature of heaven and earth, fully aware of the limitations of space, time and culture that we face, so he expressed the intention to break through these three limitations, thus reaching a higher and broader realm. This was rare in the pre-Qin era, and it is also of enlightening significance today.
Zhuangzi will also be angry and curse
Chen Yinchi wrote an article analyzing Tao Yuanming, a representative figure of Zhuangzi Thought, and pointed out: What people are most familiar with is not necessarily the truth, Tao Yuanming once plotted under two great tyrants in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, witnessed their earth-shaking deeds, and will not be an ordinary man who has no deep perception of realpolitik, nor is he a simple and pure pastoral poet who knows the fate of Lotte; just as the background of Ji Kang's "image of a famous scholar" is the cruel political struggle between Cao Wei and Sima Shi, behind Tao Yuanming's "pastoral discourse" is the dismal world experienced by the poet.
In Zhuangzi's Lecture Notes, Chen Yinchi also analyzes Zhuangzi's life and image.
Zhuangzi had no money and sometimes even needed to borrow grain. Once, when he asked Jianhehou for a loan, the other party shirked and said, "I will borrow you when I receive the tax of the fiefdom." Zhuangzi was very angry, "indignant", and told a story of "the rutted carp" to fight back.
Zhuangzi's life was embarrassing, but he did not lose his dignity in life, did not make any false remarks about words and deeds that were detrimental and insulting to himself, and would respond with ruthless and harsh irony, and if necessary, he even scolded the monarch, and scolded him happily.
Zhuangzi had his own world of life, and his greatest pleasure was to argue with people, and his best friend was probably Huishi, the logician he had once satirized. After Huishi's death, Zhuangzi showed deep sorrow.
In Zhuangzi's Lecture Notes, Chen Yinchi did not blindly praise Zhuangzi. Not only did he point out that Zhuangzi was sometimes overly arrogant and sometimes a little extreme in order to "keep his authenticity"; he also quoted Voltaire's criticism of Rousseau: "No one has ever used so much intelligence to make us stupid, and reading your masterpiece makes people want to crawl on the ground and walk on all fours", questioning Zhuangzi's views on the evolution of human civilization.
【Interview】
Zhuangzi would accept technological progress "conditionally"
Reading +: Some commentators believe that Zhuangzi denies tools and techniques, and that the relationship between heaven and man that he advocates is essentially that man obeys heaven. If he had witnessed the highly developed technological civilization of mankind, would he have revised his views on the relationship between heaven and man?
Chen Yingchi: This question is indeed very realistic, I think so, Zhuangzi may not completely revise his own views on the relationship between heaven and man. I think this is the core view of Zhuangzi.
This can be referred to Xunzi. Xunzi believed that Zhuangzi was "hidden in the sky and did not know people", which means that Zhuangzi only saw the sky and ignored people. The "critic" sometimes does see your key points.
Zhuangzi has insight into heaven and attaches great importance to it, but he does have a relatively indifferent view of people. Because Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi are basically not anthropocentric, they believe that man is one of all things.
The progress of human technology, Zhuangzi is largely opposed to the attitude, but I think, if he faces the current technological development, he may not be completely opposed.
Why? If he thinks that your technological progress is based on the nature of the heavenly path, he may be able to agree. In the story of "Cu Ding Xie Niu", he said that "with no thickness, there is a ease of maneuvering", and the knife moves freely in the skeleton of the cow. There are two very important sayings here, "According to Heavenly Reason, because of course." So, if what you're doing is really in line with heaven, I don't think he's necessarily opposed, and certainly mayn't necessarily be very positive in praising.
But if you change your genes and let someone live forever, or live 200 years and 300 years, maybe he is against it.
Zhuangzi's view of life is a naturalistic attitude, if you do not live well, you die in the chaotic world, you have not lived to the year that you should live, and you have not lived all the years, he feels that it is not good. But if you're going to live forever, he doesn't think it's right either. People are equal in the face of life and death, or the last equality is in life and death, but if there is technology to change genes, some people can spend huge sums of money to live for hundreds of years or even immortality, which is actually a big problem. I think if Zhuangzi faced this situation, he might have shook his head and felt that this change was not a natural reason.
Read +: Can you imagine Zhuangzi surviving in the 21st century? How will Zhuangzi use his mobile phone, how will he face the Internet, how will he face pressure? Today, living in the city, how do we take the positive factors in "Zhuangzi" and get nutrition from it?
Chen Yingchi: I try my best to stand in the position of defending Zhuangzi. I think Zhuangzi may use mobile phones, he will also use the Internet, he may not be too appreciative of these technical things too positive, but he may still use, why? Although his ideal is to return to the state of nature, at least he is still dressed, he is not as unclothed as animals, he still lives a normal human life, so what the basic technological civilization of an era provides, he still accepts. But even if he holds a mobile phone, he will not indulge in it all day long, and in terms of life form, he is a very ordinary person, mentally another world, with his own ideas.
As for whether we can learn something from Zhuangzi, because Zhuangzi does not live in our time, we have no way to absorb his specific practices, but we may actually have isomorphism. Although we are much richer now than he was then, we are all facing pressure or difficulties, and we may not be able to do so in all aspects. We can see how he handles this matter.
Zhuangzi has an idea about these things, and he talks about 4 levels at the beginning. The first level is to be able to be an official, to win the trust of the monarch, to be able to make a difference, and to be a worldly success. But Zhuangzi was well aware that there would be a lot of self-loss. The second level is "the world's reputation without persuasion, the world's non-judgment without discouragement", which refers to trying to do a lot of things, not to lose yourself, I think this is still very realistic for us. But if you are completely attached to the self, it is easy to cause conflicts between things and me, and this Zhuangzi may not approve of it, so he talks about the third level, that is, "walking against the wind", taking external things as my own support and reliance, and I can use it to achieve the purpose of my own freedom. I understand that in fact, it is the realm of Kunpeng, Kunpeng rises from the wind, which is that things and I can achieve a certain integration, but this is not the highest.
What is the highest realm that Zhuangzi talked about? Riding on the righteousness of heaven and earth, and the debate of the six qi, people have no self, gods and men have no merit, and saints have no name. To truly become one with the whole natural world, not only to borrow its power, but also to expand yourself as much as possible and merge with the natural world, at this time you can achieve true "leisure".
It seems to be very vain to talk about, but in fact it is really difficult, and it is difficult for modern people to understand. But in fact, not only Zhuangzi, but also Confucianism, Mencius said, "I am good at cultivating my Haoran Qi", he wants to cultivate his inner Haoran Qi, fill it between heaven and earth, and merge with the Qi of Heaven and Earth.
Mencius and Zhuangzi were contemporaries, so the relationship between heaven and man is a common thinking framework for them. So Zhuangzi I think he has a spiritual realm, and in this spiritual realm, at least literally, he is very clear. In a sense, this is also the "spiritual victory method", but his spiritual victory method is upward, he raises himself up, after he raises himself, he looks at many things in this world differently, there will be more sympathy, more tolerance, more understanding.
So when you face a dilemma, is your attitude to indulge in it, or is it to try to go beyond and overcome it? This is the similarity with one of Zhuangzi's structures. If we can have spiritual transcendence, and it is upward ascension, not the kind of spiritual victory of the Ah Q style, I think it will still be helpful to us today.
In the West, The fame of Taoism is greater than that of Confucianism, and the fame of Zhuangzi is not as good as that of Laozi
Read +: The biggest question about Zhuangzi in the book should be to quote Voltaire's criticism of Rousseau; does this mean that Zhuangzi's views on the evolution of human civilization can be regarded as bad?
Chen Yinchi: It is not impossible to criticize Zhuangzi's views on social politics and civilization as having a negative or even retrogressive tendency. The direction zhuangzi pointed out may be wrong, but he has his own reason for this. He believes that whether it is civilization, society, the construction of a society, or the construction of all systems, it must be based on human nature, and the violation or destruction of human nature is not good. Not only Zhuangzi, but many people after Zhuangzi said this, such as Marcuse's "one-dimensional man". When I was a student in the 1980s, some people said that Zhuangzi was an anti-"alienation" thinker.
Reading +: From the perspective of the territory of world thought and culture, what is the status of Zhuangzi? What is Zhuangzi's overseas spread and overseas influence?
Chen Yinchi: As far as China's local history and culture itself is concerned, of course, Confucianism is of an important position, and the influence of Confucius is greater than that of Laozi and Zhuangzi.
If placed on the map of world culture, the situation may be different. In the overseas Chinese cultural circle, or the East Asian Chinese character cultural circle, confucianism is still very important, and the influence is still very large; but if you go a little further, in these completely different cultural traditions in Western Europe and the United States, Taoism may have a higher degree of acceptance than Confucianism. Because these Taoist ideas are more universal, involving some philosophical thinking. There are many examples to be given, from Hegel to Tolstoy to Heidegger, perhaps they paid far more attention to Taoism than to Confucianism. But in Taoism, Lao Tzu had a greater influence than Zhuangzi. Lao Tzu's five thousand words, his speculative philosophy of thought, since Hegel, has been very influential in the Western intellectual circles, and in this regard Zhuangzi cannot be compared with LaoZi. In terms of translations, "Lao Tzu" is definitely much more than "Zhuangzi", but there are actually many translations of "Zhuangzi", and I have seen at least more than ten kinds in English alone.
It is almost impossible to write the biography of Zhuangzi
Read +: I noticed that you wrote about Tao Yuanming and Ji Kang, linking their thoughts and actions to their backgrounds and backgrounds, including the environment in which they lived, and saying that "no one is exempt from the weight of his time." When it comes to "Ding Ding's solution to the cattle", you say that this is Zhuangzi's way of dealing with the world summed up in the face of "bloody reality", so can you infer what really happened in "Zhuangzi's world", or what he saw, so he formed such a thought?
Chen Yinchi: I have always had a view that it is almost impossible to write a biography of Zhuangzi, and even the simplest life cannot be implemented. The lives of Confucius and Mencius can be determined, the life of Zhuangzi, and many famous scholars have deduced that there is a difference of several decades.
In addition, Kong Meng and others have teachers, and Lao Tzu's knowledge may come from the database he is in charge of, but Zhuangzi does not seem to have a teacher. Sima Qian said that he "has learned everything", how did his knowledge come from? Judging from his writing, he is very familiar with the "famous masters", that is, the school of logic, has a wide range of historical and social observations, and often writes about animals and plants, and some people once said that he was a craftsman, because he seemed to be familiar with various craftsmen.
What exactly zhuangzi went through, we actually don't know. All of his words and deeds as we know him are provided to us by the book "Zhuangzi", and many of them are fables, which do not necessarily really happen.
I can only say that Zhuangzi is a person who lived very badly in the chaotic world on a real life or secular level, a person who was unsuccessful in all aspects, he had a very rich spiritual world, there were many fantastic ideas, far beyond his contemporaries, such as Mencius. He must have thought that the era was very bad, it was a chaotic world, survival was very dangerous, and if he didn't get it right, he would lose his life, and he must have witnessed a lot of chaos.
I can only say that Zhuangzi was an insignificant person in that era, who could not change history at all, but only changed the spirit of man later, and injected another kind of power into the spirit of many people in later generations, and his power was in future generations. (Yangtze River Daily reporter Li Xu)
【Editor: Hou Fangyu】
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