"Doing nothing is the supreme law"
Good words are flawless;
Good closure has nothing to do with and cannot be opened;
Good knots are untied and untied.
"Flaw" is a flaw, and "flaw" is also a flaw. "謫" is the same as "谪". Li Bai has a nickname called "Immortal", that is, he made a mistake and was demoted to the mortal world, which is people's praise for him, because his poems are so good, most of them are natural. Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng in "Journey to the West" are also immortals, one of them is the marshal of Tianpeng, coveting Chang'e's beauty and revealing her original form, and wanted to flirt with Chang'e, so she was demoted to the mortal world by the Jade Emperor and mistakenly put into the pig's womb; This is called "Confession".
If you are good at speaking, you will not let people grasp the handle from your words, nor will people find your faults from your words. If others can hear your gains and losses from your words, you are saying something wrong. Someone once advised me not to be too specific and vague in my speech, and learn to "um", "ah", "make sense", "think about it", "is it so", so that others will not be able to find fault with you, you are the master. Of course, this is just a joke. In fact, a person who is really good at talking will not be extreme, regardless of whether he understands the situation or not, he will not be extreme. If you say something that others can find faults, and you love and hate clearly, and you are sharp, you are not good at speaking.
"Good numbers don't need to be planned", people who are good at calculations don't need calculation tools. "Planning" refers to calculation tools, such as an abacus and a small stick made of bamboo, wood or bone. Using these tools to calculate is called using strategy, and mental arithmetic is actually using strategy, because mental arithmetic has methods and formulas, and these are all planning. So, a philosophy professor interprets this sentence as "those who are good at calculations don't need calculation tools, they can do mental arithmetic", which is not true. What Lao Tzu really wants to express should be that people who are really good at calculation will not care about petty profits. This calculation is equivalent to calculating, not just calculating numbers. Lao Tzu believes that the person who does not care about small profits, does not suffer from gains and losses, and even does not care about gains and losses, is the person who really knows how to calculate, and we can call it a "person who calculates".
Little calculators care about how much profit they get, such as Wang Xifeng in "Dream of Red Mansions", she is too smart and no one can calculate her, but "the agency is too clever to calculate, but it costs Qingqing's life". That's why I often tell the students I work with that you should let others make money, not calculate the benefits. A lot of times, if book signings don't make the bookstore make money, I'll try to make them make money. Many of my friends invite me to give lectures and I try to save them money when they promise to cover a lot of expenses for me. For example, a university in Xinjiang invited me to give a lecture, which was expected to take me four days, and I agreed, but I made two requests: first, it could not send a car to pick me up, and second, it could not help me book a room. Why? Because I know they don't have a lot of money. As long as I don't touch on some issues of principle, I will think about the other party. Moreover, there are friends in Xinjiang who want to see me, and I can also meet my friends by the way when I go to give lectures, which is also very good. Regardless of whether the effort is proportional to the gain, it is also a kind of "no planning".
The real strategists are not calculating, because calculations are aimed at small profits, and those who do big things do not think small, do not care, and do not have so many utilitarian considerations. He has a big atmosphere, he doesn't care about utilitarianism, he only cares about that big goal. On the other hand, if you find that an individual is very obsessed with personal gains and losses, he is certainly not a real scheming person. In fact, life is the same as fighting, you can't care about the gains and losses of one time and one place, you must have a mind that doesn't care.
In the past, when I didn't have much money, I didn't care what my salary was, no matter whether my job title was high or low. Now that I have a little money, people educate me and say, Xue Mo, your money can't be put in the bank, it will depreciate if you put it in the bank, you have to invest. But I never invested, I never even thought about it. Although I also bought a few houses, it was not for investment in real estate, but for people who do things to live in. If I have any money to spare, I will put the rest in the bank except for good deeds, and let it depreciate in value. As long as there is a bowl of rice to eat, I think it's fine. And I usually survive, and when it's time to use the money, I'll bring it up at any time. I never think about how much interest I've lost or how much money I've saved is more cost-effective. Because, there are more important things in my life, focusing on the more important goals, doing my best, not focusing on small things, and not letting utilitarianism dilute the goals, which is also a "good plan".
What is the "gate" that "good closure has nothing to do with the door and cannot be opened"? It is the door latch. In the past, when people were in the house, they would put several poles behind the door, some of which were straight and some of which were horizontal, so that the door could not be pushed against the door and people from outside could not enter. Therefore, "good closure has nothing to do with the door and cannot be opened" means that those who are good at closing the door and blocking the door will not be able to open the door even if there is no latch behind the door.
In the past, when there was a war, there would always be a scene of siege and defense of the city, so did the defender put up the door latch and the other party could not enter? Of course not. There are many ways for siegers to enter the city. For example, they can bring ladders and climb into the city, they can also hit the city gate with a giant log, break the latch behind the gate, and even break your baggage and trap you in the city for a while, and if you don't have reinforcements, you can either die or open the gate and surrender. In short, as many ways as you defend the gate, the other party will have as many ways to siege the city. Cities are often undefended. Therefore, rejecting others is not the best way, and those who are really good at guarding often take non-keeping as a guard.
The same is true of the Harvard campus in the United States, which does not have the kind of school that can be closed all the time, and anyone can come and go as they please, but Harvard University will never lose its most precious thing. Why? Because its most precious thing is a spirit, a culture, which is open in itself, and does not need to be rejected and cannot be lost.
The same is true for the gentleman, the gentleman is open, his heart is bright and open, there are no chickens and dogs, so he never defends, just like the people of Tibet said: "The saint has done mortal things, and his heart is also holy." That is to say, even if it appears to be the same as a worldly act, it will have a completely different nature and result because the starting point is not selfish desires but benefiting others. On the contrary, there is also a saying in China that "villains grow relatives", villains have a lot of flies and dogs in their hearts, and they dare not show others, so they will always be worried and try their best to fortify.
The legendary Great Bodhisattva is also good at closing, they "raise their heads to meet the white blade, like a spring breeze" If you want to cut off his head, he will give your head to you, and there is no fear in your heart, just like bathing in the spring breeze. This realm is very high, and he has reached the comfort of life and death, and he doesn't even care about death.
All of the above are what Lao Tzu called "good closure" - naturally, no prevention or loss, although it is not closed, there is no need to close, and it is not necessary to beware of others, but it is also not open, and no one can destroy, attack, or harm him.
"A good knot is unbreakable without a rope", a person who is good at forming an alliance with others, even if he does not have a contract, he does not use a rope to tie the other party, and the other party will not break the covenant with him. "Knot" is to tie a knot and tie two ropes together. The "knot" here also means an alliance.
Faith is a typical example of "the knot is untied and unsolvable". For example, have you ever seen a great monk sign a contract with a disciple, stipulating that "I will be your teacher and you will be my student for a period of three years, and those who break the contract without reason must compensate the other party 300,000 yuan"? No, but many of them have very firm faith relationships, and they are constantly cut with steel knives. The same is true of revolutionary ideals. The martyrs of the past were truly "it doesn't matter if their heads are cut off, as long as their doctrine is true", and no one restrained them or demanded that they defend their revolutionary ideals with their lives, but they chose to do so. Once they have established a connection with a certain group or an ism, they will elevate that doctrine to their own beliefs, and no one can break their spiritual covenants. Therefore, even if a person who is good at forming alliances does not use ropes to bind others, that relationship is still unbreakable. This is a bit like what our ancestors called the "Samaya Oath". The so-called samaya oath is a spiritual vow that does not have any written covenant or guarantee, and it seems to be invisible, but it is unbreakable.
The "good knot" is like this, he does not control others, nor binds others, but those who are allied with him will never break the contract.
You may remember Jesus and his disciples. In the earliest days, Jesus had twelve disciples, known to later generations as the Twelve Apostles, all of whom had a sense of mission. They did not have a contract with Jesus, but they lived the truth of Jesus all their lives. After Jesus ascended into heaven, they continued to do their best to spread the gospel of Jesus everywhere. They influenced a large number of Christians. In the early years, the Roman emperor slaughtered Christians in a frenzy, defined Christianity as a cult, and brutally suppressed it, but Christianity still went out into the world. Because, Christians touched Europe with their deeds, and slowly became a world religion. In Lao Tzu's words, Jesus is the "good knot", and the relationship between him and Christians, including the Twelve Apostles, is a typical "good knot without rope and unbreakable".
To this day, the story of Jesus' martyrdom continues to touch countless Christians. In the past, I have met priests in some very remote places in western China, who went there at a very young age to preach, to become priests, to be God's messengers and servants all their lives, without regrets, and finally died of old age in that land. They didn't have a contract with God, they didn't have a contract with anyone, but they willingly held fast to their faith and kept their promises to themselves. This is also the "good knot".
END
About author:Xue Mo, formerly known as Chen Kaihong, is a native of Liangzhou, Gansu Province. He is a national first-class writer, a well-known cultural scholar, vice chairman of the Gansu Writers Association, the dean of the Guangzhou Shamba Culture Research Institute, and a "humanistic tutor" of Fudan University and the Cancer Institute of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Excerpt from "Lao Tzu's Thoughts - Snow Boiled "Tao Te Ching" Second Series
雪漠（XUEMO）