In ancient China, people were curious about everything in the world and all kinds of magical phenomena, but because the development of science was not yet clear, it was impossible to explain the reasons behind it.
Some scholars tried to explain it, and from this gave birth to the science of science and mind, but many of them resorted to metaphysics.
Therefore, the outstanding philosophers of ancient times often worked part-time as metaphysicians, and they combined their thinking about the operation of all things in nature with metaphysical content such as Tiandao and Tai Chi.
And the pinnacle of this work is the famous Northern Song Dynasty physicist Shao Yong's "Fishing Qiao Asks the Right".
This 6,000-word essay contains Shao Yong's lifelong learning, and it penetrates through the dialogue between the fisherman and the woodcutter, the existence and death of ancient and modern times, the operation of heaven and other heavy topics, and accurately interprets the mysteries of heaven and earth, yin and yang education, and life morality.
Ancient Xuanxuan Scholar —— Shao Yong
At a time when the development of science and technology is in full swing, "Fishing Wood Asks the Right" is still a classic book recommended by many lovers of Chinese culture.
Although there are some metaphysical elements involved, this is at best flawed, and its subtle interpretation of the workings of everything in the world is still worth savoring.
Even if you are not interested in the I Ching or other content, you should read it carefully, and maybe you can get inspiration from it and achieve the effect of touching the class.
The author of "Yuqiao Asks the Right Question" is named Shao Yong, and this name may be relatively unfamiliar to people who are not familiar with metaphysics.
In fact, most people have read Shao Yong's work, but they have never connected the two. This physicist once wrote a famous poem - "Yonghuai of the Mountain Village": one goes to two or three miles, and there are four or five houses in the smoke village. There are six or seven pavilions, eighty or ninety flowers.
It should be the most "approachable" ancient poem, and it can be regarded as the poetry enlightenment for many people.
Shao-yong
In the fourth year of Song Zhenzong's auspicious fu, Shao Yong was born in a scholarly family in Shanggangzhuang, Linxian County, and loved reading since he was a child, and he was a well-known prodigy.
According to historical records, Shao Yong also had a secular heart to pursue fame and fortune, after all, everyone at the time was proud of the "imperial examination list".
It is reported that Shao Yong is not a person who studies hard behind closed doors, he advocates that "it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read 10,000 books", and imitated the way of the ancients to study and study, and once crossed the Yellow River and the Fen River, and visited the entire Jianghuai and Hanjiang River plains on foot.
In this process, Shao Yong saw the scenery of mountains and rivers, understood the various states of the world, had a deeper understanding of the classics, and gradually found the threshold of "Tao".
In order to pursue more intelligent learning, Shao Yongbai went to the disciple of Li Zhicai, a famous scholar, who was a master of Yixue at that time. Under the guidance of Li Zhicai, Shao Yong studied "Hetu", "Luo Shu" and Fuxi Bagua, and made rapid progress.
This surprised Li Zhicai, because the easy-to-learn books are known for being obscure, and Shao Yong not only easily understood the wisdom in them, but also quickly integrated them into his own ideas.
Obviously, at this time, Shao Yong had already gotten a glimpse of the door and gradually realized his own "way".
Slowly, Shao Yong's understanding of the laws of change in heaven and earth became more and more profound, and he gradually became a master of easy learning at that time, and was highly respected by the world.
In the first year of Huangyou, Shao Yong moved to Luoyang, and later became friends with former prime ministers Fu Bi, Sima Guang, and the famous poet Lü Gongshu, and they often got together for in-depth exchanges and talked about their understanding of the changes in heaven and earth and the rise and fall of yin and yang.
After finding his own "Tao", Shao Yong's enthusiasm for fame and fortune completely faded. During the reign of Song Renzong Jiayou and Song Shenzong Xining, the imperial court twice wanted to recruit Shao Yong into the court as an official, but he was politely rejected by him.
During his stay in Luoyang, Shao Yong created many excellent works, and "Fisherman Asks Right" is just one of them. His "Emperor Ji Jing Shi", "Viewing Things Inside and Outside" and "Innate Diagram" are also highly well-known and highly respected by later generations.
How does "Fisherman Ask Right" explain the way of heaven
Shao Yong was regarded by the literati as the master of ancient metaphysics, and the reason why he was able to receive such high praise was that the "Huangji Jingshishu" and "Yuqiao Wen" played a crucial influence.
Among them, the "Huangji Jingshishu" has a total of 12 volumes and 64 articles, which is based on easy numbers and easy reason, and establishes the rules of personnel management through the deduction of heavenly ways, which is a very excellent book of "traditional physical philosophy".
And "Yuqiao Asks the Right" is much shorter than "Huangji Jingshishu" in length, only about 6,000 words.
But its value is not lost to the "Huangji Jingshishu", after Shao Yong created this article, he quickly climbed to the peak in the field of metaphysics and science.
In this article, Shao Yong sets up two characters, the woodcutter and the fisherman, the former asking questions and the latter answering them.
Through the questions and answers of the two people, various concepts about "heaven" and "humanity" were narrated by Shao Yong.
Among them, "Heavenly Dao" is the most important content of ancient philosophers, and to put it bluntly, it is a summary of the laws of the operation of all things in heaven and earth.
Shao Yong explained his understanding of "Heavenly Dao" to everyone in the world through the mouth of the fisherman.
Like many of his predecessors, Shao Yong also agrees with the concept that "Tai Chi gives birth to two rituals, and two rituals give birth to four elephants", but he gave a clear explanation of these mysterious things.
Before Shao Yong, although the Taoists put forward the concept of "Tai Chi", there was no clear explanation, which always sounded like a fog.
Shao Yong explained "Tai Chi" very clearly in "Fisherman's Question", he believed that this is a state in which everything is preparing to sprout, but in fact there is no sprout, which is similar to the famous Schrödinger's law.
Therefore, the so-called "tai chi" does not refer to specific things, but to describe a state.
The reason why Tai Chi gives birth to all things is because it is the only state that is independent of movement and stillness.
The germination of all things represents the end of static, while the state of chaos represents the staticness of everything that is not born, and Tai Chi is just somewhere in between.
When Tai Chi developed further, Yin and Yang were created, and they were called Liangyi. And these two gave birth to the next four hours and four dimensions.
After the birth of the "four hours" and "four dimensions", everything began to be conceived and gradually appeared in heaven and earth.
The so-called "four hours" is a concept of time, referring to the familiar four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, while the "four dimensions" is a spatial concept, representing the four dimensions of image, number, body and system
In "The Fisherman's Question", Shao Yong gave a detailed explanation of the connection between "yin and yang" and "four times", and clearly summarized the connection between them.
Shao Yong believes that the operation of the four seasons itself is the result of the constant change and dynamic balance of "yin and yang".
At the beginning of the year, the yang energy gradually rises, the yin energy gradually decreases, and spring descends on the earth. And when this trend reaches its peak, it means that it has entered the summer.
However, as the so-called "solitary yang does not grow", when the yang energy reaches its peak and completely suppresses the yin energy, the latter will quickly rebound, and then usher in the autumn wind gust. When the yin energy reaches its peak, a cold winter descends on the world.
This is Shao Yong's understanding of the operation of the Heavenly Dao, and he wrote these contents into "Yuqiao Asks the Right" in simple terms, which inspired many readers, including Sima Guang.
The uniqueness of this work
In fact, Shao Yong's "Fisherman's Question" is not only a high-ranking birth article, but also contains a lot of content on WTO accession, that is, the so-called "humanitarian" part.
This is the power of "Fisherman's Question", its content is rich and complete, and the logic is clear.
When there was no theory of evolution, the ancients would also think about why man became the most special of the earth's creatures, so various conjectures were born, such as the legend of "Nuwa created man" is an interpretation of this matter by the ancients.
Shao Yong also made a logical and clear explanation of this point in "The Fisherman's Question", and he proposed that everything in the world is born from the interaction of yin and yang.
If you look at this alone, it seems that there is no essential difference between animals and people.
However, Shao Yong's ordinary creatures can only passively absorb the yin and yang qi in heaven and earth, so they will not be able to enlighten their entire lives, and naturally they will not be able to have higher-dimensional wisdom.
People are different, they naturally have a strong affinity for the yin and yang qi, and will take the initiative to absorb the yin and yang qi around them.
Moreover, the five internal organs of the human body will also store a large amount of yin and yang and two qi, and the essence of the person will be improved because of the more stored people.
This would explain why human beings are born with the same intelligence as many living beings, but as they grow older, they can complete enlightenment and possess wisdom and abilities far beyond all living beings.
Through this, Shao Yong also explained why there has always been a difference in levels in "humanity", because different people have completely different affinities for yin and yang, and those who can absorb the most yin and yang will naturally become the best, or even be canonized.
But all of Shao Yong's theories have a premise, that is, the total amount of yin and yang qi in this world is constant, so it is impossible for everyone to be canonized.
From this point of view, Shao Yong is clearly opposed to the Buddhist view that "everyone can become a Buddha".
It can be said that on this basis, Shao Yong made a more comprehensive explanation of the theory in the Tao Te Ching: "The way of heaven is to make up for the deficiency when there is more loss, and the way of man is to make up for the deficiency than is enough".
Finally, Shao Yong also refuted the black-and-white dualism based on the "distinction between yin and yang", and put forward the thesis that there can be no bad people in the world.
In this regard, he described it in "Fisherman's Question": "A gentleman is born of righteousness and righteousness, and a villain is born of yin and evil, and if there is no yin, there is no yang." ”
It can be said that Shao Yong fundamentally rejects the naïve idea of "eliminating all bad people", with a thorough interpretation of human nature.
Not only that, Shao Yong also corresponds to "gentleman and villain" with "good medicine and poison". He believes that although poison is harmful to people, there are times when it is useful to the body, so it can be seen that although the "villain" is harmful, it can also benefit the country if it is used well.
The best way to govern people is to be close to virtuous ministers and gentlemen when governing the country, but don't ignore "borrowing the talents of villains".
epilogue
In general, Shao Yong's "Fisherman's Question" is a masterpiece in the field of ancient philosophical thought, although it is very short, it is all-encompassing and has rich connotations. Anyone who can read and understand this article will definitely benefit a lot and have a broader vision.
It's a pity that many people arbitrarily think that the content in "Yuqiao Asks the Right" is all feudal superstition and is not worth advocating because Shao Yong is easy to learn. But in fact, this masterpiece expounds a rich philosophy of life, and it is still of high value today.
Reference:
Shao <渔樵问对>Yong's Textual Research and Ideological Research
- Li Binbin
Research on Shao Yongyi and Neo-Confucianism
- Song Xitong