Liezi lived in Zheng Guoputian, and there was no one who knew him for forty years.
Zheng Guo's monarch and minister treated him like ordinary people.
There was a famine in Zheng Guo, and Lie Yu was preparing to leave home to defend the country.
His student said, "The teacher is out this time, I don't know when I will be back, the student wants to ask some questions, what does the teacher use to teach us?"
Hasn't the teacher heard Huqiu Zilin's teachings?"
Liezi smiled and said, "What did Mr. Huqiu say?"
Even so, his old gentleman had told him that he was dumb.
I heard it from the side, so I'll tell you.
His words say: What has life and death cannot produce other things, and what has change cannot change other things.
Things that do not have birth and death can produce things that have life and death, and things that do not change can make things that have change change.
Things that have life and death cannot but live and die, and things that change cannot but change, so these things often die and die, and often change.
Things that often live and die and change are born and die all the time, and change all the time, yin and yang are like this, and the four seasons are also like this. There is no life and death in the world, and there is no change in the cycle.
The boundaries of things that go on and on can never be found; The truth of something incomparable, it cannot be exhausted.
The Book of the Yellow Emperor says: 'The god of the void does not die, it is the deep and subtle pussy. The gate of the pussy is called the root of heaven and earth. It goes on and on, as if it exists, and it is inexhaustible. ’
Therefore, the self that produces all things does not die and die, and the self that changes all things does not change. It generates itself and changes on its own; Formed by itself, colored by itself; Produce wisdom and strength; Decline and decline by yourself, and grow vigorously by yourself.
It would be a mistake to say that there is something that causes it to arise, to change, to form, to color, to produce wisdom, to produce power, to reduce its decline, to grow vigorously. ”
Liezi said: "In the past, the sage relied on the two qi of yin and yang to rule all things in heaven and earth. Tangible things come into being from intangible things, so where do tangible things in heaven and earth come into being?
Therefore, the process of the generation of all things in heaven and earth has the stage of great change, the stage of primordial, the stage of beginning, and the stage of primitive. The so-called Taiyi refers to the state when there is no vitality; The so-called primordial refers to the state when the vitality begins to appear;
The so-called great beginning refers to the state when the shape begins to appear; The so-called taisu refers to the state when the mass begins to appear. The vitality, shape, and quality are present but not separated, so they are called chaos.
The so-called chaos refers to the state in which all things are in one piece and are not separated. It can't be seen when you see it, you can't hear it when you hear it, and you can't touch it, so it's called simplicity. It is easy to have no shape, easy to change and become one, one to change and become seven, and seven to become nine. Nine is the ultimate of change, and so it changes in turn to become one. The first is the beginning of the change of shape, the light qi rises to become the sky, the turbid and heavy qi sinks to become the earth, and the neutral qi becomes the person, so the heaven and the earth contain the essence, and all things are born from this change. ”
Liezi said: "Heaven and earth do not have a complete effect, the saints do not have a complete ability, and all things have no complete use.
Therefore, the duty of heaven is to grow and cover, the duty of the earth is to form objects, the duty of saints is to educate and reform, and the duty of utensils is to fit people's use.
In this way, the heavens have a shortage of work, the earth has something to be good at, and when the saints have silt, the utensils have the use of access. Why? This is because the growth cover cannot form a load, the formed load cannot be educated, the education cannot be contrary to its proper use, and the proper function of the thing has been determined, it can no longer exceed the duty it bears.
Therefore, the operation of heaven and earth is either yin or yang; The teachings of the saints are either benevolence or righteousness; The essence of all things is either softness or rigidity; These are in accordance with its proper function and cannot exceed the duties entrusted to it.
Therefore there are things that give birth and death, and there are things that produce living things; There are things that have shapes, and there are things that give shape to things that are tangible; There are things that have sounds, and there are things that make things that have sounds sound; There are things that have color, and there are things that make things that color show color; There are things that have taste, and there are things that make things that have taste taste.
The life which is manifested by the living thing dies, but the thing that gives rise to the living thing does not cease; The shape of the thing that has a shape is fulfilled, but the thing that takes shape of the thing that is tangible does not appear; The sound of the thing that has a sound has been heard, but the thing that makes the thing that has a sound does not make a sound; The color of the colored thing is revealed, but the thing that makes the colored thing excellent is not revealed; The taste of the things that have taste has been tasted, but the things that make the things that taste have not appeared: these are the things that 'nothing' does.
Nothing makes things exhibit the characteristics of yin as well as those of yang; It can exhibit the characteristics of softness or rigidity; It can be shortened or extended; It can take on the shape of a circle or a square; It can be born or it can die; It can be hot or cool; It can float up or down; It can make a palace sound, or it can make a business sound; It can be presented or hidden; It can show the color of black or the color of yellow; It can present a sweet taste or a bitter taste; It can emit the smell of 羶 or the smell of incense. It has no sense, no power, but it is omniscient and omnipotent. ”
Liezi went to Weiguo, ate on the side of the road, and saw the skulls of dead people that had been around the road for a hundred years.
Liezi plucked a flying grass and pointed at it, turned back to his student Baifeng, and said, "Only he and I understand that there is neither life nor death in all things. Is life and death really sorrowful?
Do people really rejoice in life and death? Species have mechanisms for birth and return: just as a frog becomes a quail, gets water and continues to change. When it comes to the meeting of water and soil, it becomes moss.
When it grows on a high mound of soil, it becomes a plantain. Plantains get dung and turn into black-footed grass again. The roots of the black-footed grass become silkworms, and its leaves become butterflies. The butterfly soon turns into a worm again, and if it grows under the stove, it will take on the shape of molting its skin, and its name is 掇. After a thousand days, it changed into a bird again, and its name was Qianyu Gu.
The dried bones and saliva became the worms, and the worms became the worms on the wine vinegar. The worms on the wine vinegar gave birth to the yellow worms on the wine vinegar, and the yellow worms on the wine vinegar gave birth to the nine worms, and the nine worms gave birth to the worms, and the worms gave birth to the fireflies. The liver of the sheep changed into white gas attached to the ground, the blood of horses turned into phosphorus fire that could rotate, and the blood of humans became ghost fire flowing in the wild.
The harrier becomes the morning wind, the morning wind becomes the cuckoo, and the cuckoo turns into a harrier after a long time. The swallow became a clam, the vole became a quail, the rotten melon became a fish, the old leek became amaranth, the old ewe became an ape, and the eggs of a fish became worms.
The beasts on the mountains are called class when they become pregnant and give birth to their young, and the birds in the river look at each other and give birth to children. The name of an all-female animal is Big-Loined, and the name of an all-male animal is a juvenile bee.
An unrequited man conceives without marrying a wife, and an unrequited woman conceives without marrying a husband. Houji was born in the footprints of giants, and Yiyin was born in the empty mulberry forest. The cockroach is born in damp places, and the midges are born in wine vinegar. The sheep grass is more beautiful than the old bamboo that does not grow bamboo shoots, and the old bamboo that does not grow bamboo shoots gives birth to Qingning insects, and Qingning insects give birth to leopards, leopards give birth to horses, and horses give birth to people, and people live for a long time and return to organs like pussy. All things are born from this mechanism, and all things are restored from this mechanism.
The Book of the Yellow Emperor says: "The movement of the body does not produce the body and produces the shadow, the movement of the sound does not produce the sound and produces the echo, and the movement of the 'nothing' does not produce the 'nothing' and produces the 'being'." "Tangible things will come to an end.
Will heaven and earth end? There will be an end just like me. Is there an end to the end? I don't know. The Tao ends when there was no beginning, and ends where there was no thing. Things that have life and death revert to a state without birth and death, and things that have shapes return to a state without life.
The state of not having life and death does not mean that there is no life and death in the first place; The state without shape does not mean that there is no shape in the first place. Everything that comes into being is bound to come to an end.
What should end has to end, just as what should have come into being cannot but come into being. And to make it live forever and stop its end, it is not to understand the principles of nature! The spirit belongs to heaven; The skeleton belongs to the earth. It belongs to the clarity and dispersion of the heavens, and belongs to the turbidity and condensation of the earth. The spirit left the body and returned to its original place, hence the name of the ghost. Ghost means to return, to return to its original hometown.
The Yellow Emperor said: "The spirit enters the gate of heaven, and the bones return to their original roots, what do I have left?"
From birth to death, there are four stages of great change: infancy, young and strong, old age, and death.
When a person is in infancy, he is single-minded, and it is the most harmonious time, and foreign objects cannot harm it, and virtue cannot be higher than this.
When a person is young and strong, his blood is overflowing, his desires and thoughts are full of thoughts, and foreign objects attack him, and virtue begins to decay.
In the old age stage, people's desires and thoughts are constantly weakening, the body is about to rest, and foreign objects will not compete with it. Although the virtue at this time is not as complete as when it was a baby, it is far from the young stage. In the stage of death, it is time to rest completely, to return to the pole before birth.
Confucius visited Mount Tai and saw Rong Qiqi strolling in the suburbs of Yiyi, wearing coarse leather clothes and tying coarse hemp ropes, playing the piano and singing at the same time.
Confucius asked, "Why is the gentleman so happy?"
Rong Qiqi replied: "There are many reasons why I am happy: nature gives birth to all things, and only man is the most noble; And since I can become a human being, that is naturally the first reason why I am happy. There is a difference between men and women in human beings, men are respected and women are despised, so men are the most expensive; And since I can be a man, that is naturally the second reason why I am happy.
When people are born into the world, have they ever seen the sun and the moon, and have died without leaving their swaddling clothes, and since I have lived to be 90 years old, that is naturally the third reason why I am happy.
Poverty is the general condition of scholars, death is the end result of man, and I am at ease in the general condition, waiting for the final result, what is there to worry about?" Confucius said, "Well said, you are a man who can comfort himself." ”
Lin is nearly 100 years old, and in the spring, he still wears coarse leather clothes, and picks up the ears of grain left over from the harvest in the fields, singing and walking forward.
When Confucius went to defend the country, he saw him in the field, turned back to his students, and said, "That old man is a man worthy of conversation, try to ask him." Zigong asked to go.
Walking towards the end of the ridge, he sighed in front of him: "Haven't you regretted it, sir?" The forest kept moving forward, and still sang more than once.
Zigong asked again and again, and then he raised his head and replied, "What do I regret?" Zigong said: "When you were young, you were lazy and didn't work hard, when you grew up, you didn't buy time, when you were old and you didn't have a wife and children, and now that you're dying, what joy is there to sing while walking while gleaning ears?"
Lin Zhi smiled and said: "Everyone has the reason why I am so happy, but they are worried about it. When I was young, I was lazy and didn't work hard, and when I grew up, I didn't buy time, so I was able to live like this. When I was old, I didn't have a wife and children, and now I'm dying again, so I can be so happy. ”
Zigong asked, "Longevity is what everyone wants, and death is what everyone hates." But you think death is joy, why?" Lin said: "Death and birth are just one and the same. So how do I know that I am not born again in another place when I die here? How do I know that death is not the same as life? How do I know that I am not foolish in trying to survive and be busy, and how can I know that I am not better off dying now than I was alive in the past?" Zigong listened, did not understand what he meant, and came back to tell Confucius. Confucius said, "I know that he is worthy of dialogue, and so it is; But his understanding of the principles of nature was not entirely complete. ”
Zigong was a little tired of studying, and said to Confucius, "I hope to rest for a while." ”
Confucius said, "There is no rest in life. ”
Zigong asked, "Then I don't have time to rest?"
Confucius replied, "There is a time of rest." You see that in the open field, there is a place that rises up, like a tomb, like a mound, and like a rice pot with the bottom facing up, and you know that it is time to rest. ”
Zigong said, "How great is death! The gentleman rested at that time, and the villain was buried at that time." ”
Confucius said, "Yes, you have now understood." People know the joy of living, but they don't know the toil of living; We all know the fatigue of old age, but we don't know the comfort of old age; We all know the abomination of death, but we don't know that death is rest.
Yan Tzu said, 'It is good that there has been death since ancient times!' The merciful rested at that time, and the unmerciful were buried at that time. Death is what virtue seeks. The ancients called the dead 'returnees'.
If the dead are 'returned,' then the living are 'pedestrians.' Walking outside all the time without knowing how to get home, that's a person who has abandoned his family. A man abandons his family, and all the people of the world oppose him; All the people of the world have abandoned their families, but no one knows what to oppose them. What kind of person is a man who has left his homeland, abandoned his relatives, abandoned his family business, and wandered around without knowing how to return home? People in the world will surely say that he is a dissolute and crazy person.
What kind of man is there who is so devoted to the rule of the prosperous age, who thinks he is wise and capable, and who makes a name for himself, and who goes about talking about it without knowing how to stop? Both of these are wrong, while the people of the world praise one and oppose the other. Only a saint knows what to praise and what to oppose. ”
Someone said to Liezi, "Why do you value nothingness?" Liezi said, "There is nothing precious in nothingness. ”
Liezi also said, "It is not the name of the thing. The key is to be still, preferably virtual.
Silence and nothingness get the true meaning of things; Striving for and praising has lost the essence and nature of things. Things have been destroyed, and then there have been people who dance with righteousness, but they cannot be repaired. ”
The bears said, "The movement of all things never stops, even the heavens and the earth are quietly moving, who feels it? I grew up here, but I fell short there. Losses, surpluses, growths, deficits, can happen at any time and disappear at any time. All the vitality is not suddenly growing, all the forms are not suddenly lost, so we don't feel that it is growing, nor does it feel that it is losing. This is also like people from birth to aging, appearance, skin color, intelligence, and posture, all of which do not change without change; Skin, nails, and hair grow and fall off at any time, and they don't stop and change when you're a baby. The change is not noticeable at all, and it is not understood until aging comes. ”
Some people in Qiguo are worried that the sky will fall, the earth will fall, and his body will have nowhere to hide, so he will not be able to sleep or eat. Another man who was worried about the man who was afraid that the sky would fall and the earth would fall went to explain to him, saying, "The heavens are an accumulation of qi, and there is no place without qi. It's like you're bending over, breathing in and in, living in the sky all day, why worry about it collapsing?" The man said, "If the sky is really an accumulation of qi, won't the sun, moon and stars fall?"
The person who explained it to him said, "The sun, moon and stars are also objects with brilliance in the accumulated air, and even if they fall, they will not hurt anything." The man said, "What shall we do if the earth falls?"
The interpreter said, "The earth is an accumulation of clods of earth, which fills the square space, and there are no clods of earth nowhere.
It's like if you stop stamping and live on the ground all day, why worry about it going down?"
The man was relieved and rejoicing; The man who was worried about him was also relieved. When Changluzi heard this, he smiled and said, "Hauni, clouds, wind and rain, and the four seasons are formed by the accumulation of qi in the sky.
Mountains, rivers and seas, gold and stones, and firewood are formed by the accumulation of tangible things on the earth. Knowing that they are an accumulation of qi, an accumulation of clods of earth, why do they not destroy it?
Heaven and earth are small objects in the universe, but they are the most massive of all tangible things. It is inevitable that it will be difficult to end and exhaustively investigated; It is difficult to observe, difficult to understand, and it is inevitable. Worrying that it will collapse is indeed too far from the correct understanding; It would also be incorrect to say that it will not collapse.
Heaven and earth cannot be destroyed without destruction, and they will always be destroyed in the end. How can you not worry when it is destroyed?"
When Liezi heard this, he smiled and said, "It is absurd to say that heaven and earth will be destroyed, and it is also absurd to say that heaven and earth will not be destroyed.
To destroy or not to destroy is something that we cannot know. Even so, destruction is a possibility, and not destruction is also a possibility, so birth does not know death, and death does not know birth; I don't know where I come, I don't know where I go. To destroy or not to destroy, why should I care?"
Shun asked Hao, "Can the Tao of the world be obtained and kept for oneself?"
He replied, "Your body is not your possession, so how can you possess the Tao?"
Shun asked, "My body does not belong to me, who owns it?"
He replied, "Heaven and earth have entrusted you with your form." Life does not belong to you, it is heaven and earth that entrust you with the neutralizing qi. Shoutian does not belong to you, it is heaven and earth who entrusted you with the order password. Nor do the descendants belong to you, but the heavens and the earth have entrusted you with the function of transformation. So you don't know where to go when you walk, you don't know what to take when you live, you don't know what to eat and what you want to eat. The movement of heaven and earth is also the function of qi, so how can all things in heaven and earth be obtained and possessed?"
The Guo clan of the Qi State was very rich, and the Xiang clan of the Song State was very poor.
From the Song State to the Qi State, the Xiang clan asked the Guo clan for advice on how to get rich.
Guoshi told him, "I am good at stealing. When I started stealing, one year was enough for myself, two years I was rich, and in three years I had a good harvest. Since then, I have also given alms to the folks in the state. Xiang was very happy to hear this.
But he only understood Guo's words of stealing, but he did not understand Guo's method of stealing. So he jumped over the wall and made holes, and whatever his hands touched, and his eyes saw, there was nothing that he did not explore. It wasn't long before he was convicted of the stolen goods and confiscated of his previous savings.
Xiang thought that Guoshi had deceived him, so he went to complain about Guo. Guoshi asked, "How did you steal?" Xiang recounted his theft.
"Alas," said Guo, "you have gone so wrong in your way of stealing!
I've heard that the weather is seasonal, and the land is favorable. I have stolen the seasons of heaven and the benefits of the earth, such as the moisture of clouds and rain, and the peculiarities of the mountains, and have used them to bring forth my seedlings, and to multiply my crops, and to build my walls, and to build my houses.
There is no one who steals beasts on land, and turtles and turtles in the waters. These seedlings, and the crops, and the land, and the trees, and the beasts, and the fish and turtles, are they all born of me?
As for the treasures of gold and jade, and the goods of grain, which have been accumulated by others, where is it given to you by heaven? Xiang was very confused, thinking that Guo was deceiving himself again, so he went to Mr. Dongguo to ask for advice.
Mr. Dong Guo said, "Aren't all the things in your body stolen?
It is true that heaven and earth and all things cannot be completely separated, and it is foolish to regard them as one's own. The theft of the kingdom is fair, so there is no disaster; Your theft is selfish, so you are questioned.
In fact, the distinction between public and private is also theft, and not distinguishing between public and private is also theft. But it is the virtue of heaven and earth to regard what is public as publicly owned, and what is private as private. Who is the thief of the thief who knows the virtues of heaven and earth, and who is not the thief?"