Chapter 60
To govern a big country, if you cook a small fresh.
The Tao comes to the world, and its ghosts are not gods. It is not a ghost or a god, and its god does not hurt people. If it is not a god, it does not hurt people, and a saint does not hurt people. The husband and wife do not hurt each other, so virtue is returned.
Let's first understand the literal meaning of this chapter.
To govern a big country, if you cook a small fresh. How do we understand this sentence, governing a big country is like cooking.
The Tao comes to the world, and its ghosts are not gods. Lao Tzu doesn't talk about ghosts and gods, and the ghosts and gods here do not refer to the ghosts and spirits we imagined. In our minds, God is the one who wants to subdue the demons, control the demons, influence the demons, and fight the demons. As for the ghost, it is the power that rebels against God, calculates God, and wants to overthrow God. Therefore, the ghosts and gods here can be extended to two different positions, different ideas. Why do people have different positions and different concepts? It is because they are separated from each other, Zhuangzi said, the other is also right and wrong, and this one is also right and wrong, in life, the subject is called me, and the object is called you. When your concept does not match mine, it may arise, I am me, you are you, I want to suppress you, you want to fight my situation. And they are not opposed to each other, which is the hub of the Word, and they are in harmony with the Word.
Therefore, what does it mean to use the Tao to conquer the world, but not to be a god? Leaders use morality to govern the world, there is no conspiracy or conspiracy, they do not stand on their own standpoints, confront each other, calculate against each other, and do things to achieve a certain goal for themselves.
It is not a ghost or a god, and its god does not hurt people. Not only is there no conspiracy, but what the managers do will not hurt people.
If it is not a god, it does not hurt people, and a saint does not hurt people. Not because of strategy, but because saints don't think to hurt people. The husband and wife do not hurt each other, so virtue is returned. It is because the manager and the managed follow the law of the Tao to do things, do what they should do, so they will not hurt each other, so virtue can converge together, Lao Tzu said earlier, all things negative yin and embrace yang, impulse to think that harmony, this world can form a strong cohesion.
After understanding the literal meaning, let's explore in depth what the profound meaning of the Tao Te Ching in this chapter can give us, what aspects of our cognition can be improved, and what aspects can be used in practice.
Governing a big country, if you cook a small fresh, this sentence has long become the mainland's concept of governing the country, how to understand it, but each has its own sayings. Most people's understanding boils down to basically the same, governing a big country if cooking a small fresh, symbolizing a superb art of governing the country. To cook a small fish, you only need the right amount of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, but you can't stir it casually, otherwise it will be rotten. Combined with Lao Tzu's idea of ruling by inaction, that is, to govern a country, we must not intervene too much and arbitrarily, but do something and not do something, so that the state apparatus can operate spontaneously and benignly under the established rules.
But can "don't do anything" to make the world a better place? For example, some people say, "I don't want to be miserable, I don't want to be entangled, I don't want to be sad, I know what I need to do to change the situation?" Apparently not. It's simple to govern a big country if it's just something you don't do, but that's not the case. So, the above explanation is correct, but it is incomplete, because it does not answer how to do it.
The country should be governed, it must be governed, small fish should be cooked, and it must be cooked well, and how to do it is very important. As mentioned earlier, inaction is the greatest act, and inaction is not about not doing things, but about doing things, what things to do, and how to do things, so as to achieve long-term peace and stability of the country.
People who can govern the country and level the world, who are born with it, are accumulated step by step, from the knowledge of things, sincerity and righteousness, to self-cultivation, self-cultivation is fundamental, and then open it, help it, start from a small thing, and finally become a big thing, the order can not be reversed.
To govern a big country, if you cook small things, you will know small things, and it will not be difficult to do big things. Why? The principles of governing a large country and managing a family are the same, and they are all the same, and they are all in the same situation, but there is a difference in size. For every Chinese, the country is the biggest home and the biggest situation. Home is the smallest situation, the most basic situation, except for the individual. Regardless of the size of the situation, it is composed of three basic elements: people, things, and things. In this basic situation, people are the subject of the basic situation, things are the guarantee of the basic situation, and things are the connection between people and people, and people and things. The general situation of the country also has the same structure, but there are more than a billion people who can't be counted. In addition to the largest situation of the country, there are many more small situations, organizations, companies, teams, and so on.
So, how do you push the big with the small?
The first step to do a good job in family management and national governance is self-awareness. Lao Tzu said that those who know others are wise, and those who know themselves are clear. Whether it is management or cooking, it is all carried out on the basis of oneself. If you don't recognize what your subjectivity is, no matter how skilled you are, you will still be confused. To make a dish, you naturally need to know what you want to cook and why you want to do it, not that way. There is both purpose and no purpose, both self and selflessness. Three meals a day, daily diet, is what everyone naturally wants to do, the leaders do what they need to do, and the people do what they need to do. Governing the country is like this, and so is the Qi family, and the Qi family and governing the country are all routines.
Cooking Xiaoxian is generally in the context of the family, who will cook? Of course, it is the people who will cook, and you will cook. You must be clear about your cooking level, how many people in your family, what are the tastes of your family, what dishes to cook, what dishes to buy, what seasonings to use, which one or several cooking techniques to use, and how to meet the needs of everyone. In modern society, mothers often have troubles, but they don't know what to do. Ask your husband and children what they want to eat? They will say, whatever. However, when you have finished the meal, the child takes a few bites and says that he has no appetite and stops eating. My husband said, I want to eat braised braised braised bones, you make me sweet and sour and don't eat it! So, what does it mean casually? You come to me to order, and if you do it, I'll find fault.
It is difficult for two or three members of a family to be unified, and the same is true for national governance, and in a large country with a population of more than one billion, everyone has their own ideas, and it is even more difficult to reconcile them. However, the purpose of national governance remains unchanged, and the saints are always unintentional, take the hearts of the people as their hearts, and constantly meet the needs of the people for a better life.
The housewife of a family cooks and cooks, of course, she hopes to do well and satisfy her family, but many times she is anxious because she does not know enough about her family and is not confident in her own ability. So what to do? There are two ways to do this.
The first way is to go your own way and go all the way to the end. Seeing that the family likes to eat braised pork, they roasted the braised pork once, and were praised by the family, but the braised pork was eaten, causing the family to want to vomit when they saw the braised pork, which lacked change. This is not the case with national governance, governing the country with righteousness and using troops with odds, and if there is no change, the country will be a pool of stagnant water. Be firm in your goals and change your behavior. In a family, housewives used to cook and cook to keep the whole family fed, but in modern society, it has become a constantly changing taste to meet the needs of family members for a better life.
The second way is to meet their needs as much as possible, which is a great test of motherhood. In some families, housewives cook particularly deliciously, and some housewives cook particularly unpalatable, and are often complained about by family members. People think it's just a matter of cooking skills, but they don't know that there is a profound sense of statecraft embedded in it.
Housewives who cook delicious meals have a very strong ability to observe and summarize. As mentioned earlier, cooking is also a process of learning from things, and it is necessary to be as objective as possible and achieve more accurate cognition. A housewife who cooks deliciously does not boast that she cooks deliciously, and does not think that other people are unwilling to eat, that is, they have no taste, she is trying to improve herself.
In addition to Gewu Zhizhi, the rest is to have a full understanding of the relationship between people in the situation, and she will directly obtain information through communication, which requires adjusting the behavior of her husband and son, and having positive communication skills. For example, the child said that the child wanted to eat braised pork in the morning, and some mothers said that they wanted to eat braised pork in the morning, what do they want? Breakfast has been made, I love to eat it, and if I don't eat it, I should leave quickly. This is self-centeredness, not other-centeredness. What can mom say? Baby, mom cooks for you, and she cooks a lot of it in the morning, and she may not be able to do it well in the evening. Mom has to do things in so much power in the morning for such a short time, breakfast, the first must be nutritious, the second must be fast, there may be some impact on the taste, this I need your understanding.
Governing the country and governing the family are the same, and we need to understand the objective world as accurately as possible, and do things in accordance with the laws of nature, so as to control the world with the Tao. The saints are often unintentional, they take the hearts of the people as their hearts, and the saints and the people do things according to moral norms, of course, there will be no intrigue and deceit in the country and the family.
Lao Tzu said that if you come to the world with the Tao, your ghost is not a god. As a parent, if you don't understand how the laws of nature work, you will definitely not have a positive effect. As mentioned earlier, ghosts and gods are two different positions and views, my mother made the dishes, others can't say it's bad, if it's not good, I'm uncomfortable, make it for you to eat, you still hate the West, you love to eat, you don't like to eat and get out. People who think like this are completely in their own subjective world, and when they interact with the objective, they need to objectively follow their subjective wishes. If I'm good, you're good, if I'm bad, don't think about it, when I'm good, I'm God. When I'm not good, you're a ghost, and that's what turns you against each other. However, if we don't want to be opposed, we have to ask whether my mother must obey the wishes of others? Do you do what others ask you to do? Aren't you just a tool of others?
Here we need to look higher. What is a family? We are formed by individuals, there is "me", there is "we", the country and the enterprise are the same, and there are countless "mes" composed of "we". However, being with you does not necessarily form "we", and "we" need to be built, otherwise there will be a state of opposition between gods and ghosts.
The mother cooks, the child is not delicious, and the mother accuses the child of being a person who does not know how to be grateful. This is the mother hurting people, only "me" in her eyes, and losing "us". And the child, because of his mother's accusations, also did something that made his mother uncomfortable. The whole family, the concept of "we" is lost.
Lao Tzu said: Why do we have to obey you, or obey me? Only by visiting the world with the Tao and not hurting each other can we return to virtue and truly form "we". Managing a family, just like cooking, is very important to focus people's hearts and minds from you, me and him to "we". If there is no me or you in our minds, but there is a "we", then we are one step closer to virtue. When one day, when we don't even have "we", we live in this world, and we just do things according to morality, then our subjective world and the objective world converge and merge. This is what Zhuangzi said about the state in which heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things are one with me.
And so on, managing the country, managing the enterprise, and managing the team all need to use a little bit of skill just like cooking to adjust everyone's tastes to a common range. What managers need to do is to adjust the three views of each person in the situation to a common recognition range, and form a common belief, a common value, and a common code of conduct. To achieve such a state, the two will not hurt each other, of course, virtue and goodness will be blended, and everyone will be united.