Hello everyone, here is a small broadcast reading, starting from today, we will share with you the thoughts of another thinker of the Taoist school, Liezi, referring to the annotated version of Zhang Guichao's "Liezi". In Taoist thought, Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi are more familiar to everyone, but Liezi may not be familiar to everyone, in fact, Liezi is a Taoist thinker before Zhuangzi, a representative figure of Taoism in the early Warring States period, and Zhuangzi is a representative figure of Taoism in the middle of the Warring States.
Liezi was born around 450 BC, about 80 years before Zhuangzi, about 100 years later than Laozi, so in fact, Liezi is a figure who inherits the taoist thought, and there are 8 surviving articles in the book "Liezi", next, I will share them one by one for you, and today we begin to share the first "Tianrui".
At the beginning of this passage, Liezi expounds on the question of what tao. Liezi says that some things are produced by other things and changed by other things, and some things are not produced and changed by other things, which is the root of the universe, that is, the Tao. The Tao is the beginning of all things, other things are born and die, all are cyclical, and the Tao is the law behind the change of things, this law is unchanged, it is independent and eternal.
Liezi quotes the Book of Emperors and says, "The Tao has no beginning in the end, and it will not be long before it enters the book." To be alive is to be reborn than not to be born, and to be tangible is to be invisible. The Tao itself has no beginning, there is no so-called end, and the Tao itself has no form, and there is no distinction between the end. This is consistent with lao tzu's exposition of the Tao in the Tao Te Ching.
Lao Tzu said, "When things are mixed, they are born in heaven and earth." Lonely, independent and unchanging, circumnavigating without dying, can be the mother of the world. I don't know its name, but the word is known as the Tao, and the name of the strong is great."
Liezi said that in the past, the saints used the two "qi" of yin and yang to explain the birth process of everything in the universe. Tangible things arise from the invisible, so where does the universe come from? Liezi said, "There is too easy, there is too beginning, there is too beginning, there is too plain." Those who are too easy, they have not seen qi; those who are too beginning, the beginning of qi; those who are too beginning, the beginning of form; those who are too primitive, the beginning of quality. In this process of the production of everything in the universe, there is first too easy, then there is too beginning, then there is too beginning, and then there is too element.
These four processes are like this. Too easy, that is, qi is not separated from the chaotic state, too beginning, that is, the emergence of yuan qi; too beginning, is the emergence of form; too primitive, that is, the appearance of tangible qi essence. At this time, the Yuan Qi, form, and essence are already available, but there is no "mutual", that is, everything is still chaotic and has not been separated, it cannot be seen, heard, or touched, so it is called "easy". Yi is the change itself, it has no form, no trace, called "one", and then differentiated from one to two, that is, "yin and yang" two kinds of qi, from which the universe was born. Man is also the fusion of yin and yang, and everything in heaven and earth contains yin and yang essence, and all things are multiplied.
Here Liezi describes in detail the process of the formation of all things, describing a process from nothing, from Taiyi, Taichu, Taishi, to Taisu, after experiencing four states, all things have become specific Yuanqi, form and essence. The "qi" here is very crucial, it is a state that appeared in the primeval time, and in ancient thought, "qi" represents both a kind of nothingness and a reality, or in other words, qi is also a state of existence between nothingness and existence. Speaking of "Yuan Qi", it is necessary to mention Zhang Zai, a famous philosopher of the Northern Song Dynasty and one of the founders of the Science of Science, who put forward the idea of "Qi Ontology". Zhang Zai said: "Everything that can be shaped has also, everything that can be like it is also like it, and all that is like it is also qi."
Zhang Zai believes that the essence of the universe, the beginning of all things is "qi" or "yuan qi", all things are gasified, all things with thousands of forms are different manifestations of qi, all forms are called "elephants", and all images begin with qi. There is a fundamental difference between the qi that Zhang Zai said and the qi of Liezi is that the qi of Liezi represents a kind of nothingness, while zhang Zai's qi is actually a kind of being. Zhang Zai said that whether it is an image of "being" or an invisible "nothing", in essence, it is all existence, not "nothingness".
Zhang Zai inherited and developed the category of "too virtual" in ancient times, transformed and discarded it, used qi to represent the basic form of material existence and the basic state of material movement, and put forward the ontological idea of "too virtual is qi". "Qi as the ontology" and "gasification of all things" are typical materialist cosmology. Zhang Zai said, "If you are too vain, you will be angry, and there will be nothing." The qi of matter is the essence of the universe, and only the different changes in the form of existence, not the extinction and disappearance of matter itself, but the eternal existence of qi. In this way, Zhang Zai constructed the material unity of the world and the idea of the eternity of matter, and Zhang Zai's "qi ontology" is also the highest achievement of classical naïve materialist thought.
With regard to the origin of the universe and the world, whether the beginning is matter or spirit, it has always been the most basic question of philosophy, and it is also the question that every philosopher must answer. The answer to this question from the ancient Chinese Confucian school can be roughly divided into two categories: one is that the "mind" or "reason" is the origin of the universe, and the representative figures include Wang Yangming; the other is that qi is the origin, and the representative figure is Zhang Zai. Zhang Zai believes that "qi" or "yuan qi" is the basis for the production of all things.
We still return to the idea of Liezi, who believes that at first all things were a whole, and then separated into yin and yang, or two complementary and interdependent existences, so all things will show an imperfect side, the heavens are insufficient, the earth is long, the saints have no perfect ability, things have no perfect use, and because of this, they constitute a whole, and all things will merge and complement each other. In Taoist thought, the universe as a whole is the basic premise. Liezi said that all things have their own duties and positions, the task of heaven is to nurture all things, the responsibility of the earth is to assume all beings, and the duty of the saints is to manage and educate. All things in heaven and earth have their own essence, and they cannot be surpassed.
Every thing in nature, has its own place, in fact, just like every creature in the ecosystem, has its own ecological niche, is very easy to understand, this kind of thinking in Confucianism is actually the same, Confucianism believes that everyone in the social system, have a fixed position and role, so Confucius said: Kings and subjects fathers and sons, if everyone is in their place, society and the country can be stable and prosperous, whether it is all things or people, have their own fixed preset roles and positions, They each follow the Tao behind them, which is the same in both Taoist and Confucian thought, and this essence cannot be changed, which Confucians call "the Mandate of Heaven cannot be violated." Liezi said: "The overthrower cannot be carried in form, the person who is in the form cannot be educated, the person who is indoctrinated cannot be violated, and the one who should be determined is not out of place", in fact, the ideological connotation is consistent, and nature and human society have a set of internal rules.
Well, today we shared part of the content of "Liezi Tianrui", talked about the ontological thought of Liezi, the theory of the origin of all things, the next issue of the content, we continue to share, Liezi more wonderful ideas, today's content is these, if you like my article, please pay attention to the small broadcast reading, we see the next article.