In the original text of the Tao Te Ching: "All things in heaven and earth are born of being, and existence is born of nothing." Yes, it refers to the famous teachings of Confucianism, the deeds of the Dharma; none, refers to the Taoism of Taoism.
But what exactly is "nothing"? And how to unify the "have"? Neither He Yan nor his contemporary Xiahou Xuan could tell. And Sima Tan did not say in the "On the Essentials of the Six Schools", but the core of the Taoist family is "nothing", but "its things are easy to do, and its words are difficult to know".
Wang Bi gave a clear solution in "Lao Tzu's Finger Strategy", and below we follow the relevant content introduction of Wang Bi's "Lao Tzu Finger Strategy" to expand his answer:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="76" >(1) What is "none"? What is "born of nothing"? </h1>
Wang Bi first used a large paragraph and combined with the original text of the Tao Te Ching to say that "nothing" means nameless, "nameless, unspeakable."
Then he picked out some of the more concrete political views in the Tao Te Ching to prove it, and it seemed that he seemed to want to extract the basic idea of "being born from nothing" from it, but it seemed that the span was relatively large.
Lao Tzu's sentences themselves are already highly abstract, and it is difficult to refine them further.
Therefore, Wang Bi simply jumped out and spoke, and according to his divine meeting with Lao Tzu, he changed the theme of "being born of nothingness" to:
"Reverence for the end of the principal and the end". Here, "nothing" = "original", "being" = "end"; "birth" = "breath".
Therefore, "being born out of nothing" has become "worshipping the essence and the end of the breath". This is more figurative, like the apple is the end, and the apple tree is the root. Plant trees well, and naturally you will get good apples.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="80" > (2) Sima Tan's five schools are all the end, and Taoism is ben. </h1>
Wang Bi then used the phrase "Chongxin And the End" to apply it to Sima Tan on the relationship between the Six Families in "On the Essentials of the Six Schools". Here, the Taoists are ben, and the other five are the end.
He recounted Sima Tan's ideas and ideas about the famous masters, the Fa, the Confucians, and the Mo family, but replaced the Yin and Yang family with the miscellaneous family.
He believes that the political and social propositions of these five schools are all good in terms of the purpose they want to achieve, but they are all the end. It is necessary to use the Taoist "essence" to control in order to exert the purpose it wants to achieve, and if it is entangled in these ends themselves, it will not only fail to exert its effect, but will accumulate many drawbacks.
So, how does the Taoist "ben" end? Wang Bi then focuses on the relationship between the Taoist ben and the famous Dharma and Confucianism.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="81" >(3) For the nominee:</h1>
For example, Ann is the apple that all monarchs want, and does not forget the danger, that is, thinking of danger in peace, is the tree that blossoms and bears fruit;
Guotai and Min'an are the end and are visible; the monarch does not forget the danger in his heart, and formulates various strategies for long-term peace and stability, which is the original and invisible, especially the "heart of thinking of danger in peace", the most invisible, is for "nothing".
In the same way, existence, the survival of a dynasty is the visible status quo. The question is how to save? Survive, do not forget to die. Existence, visible, is the end; not forgetting the dead, invisible, is the present. The mind that does not forget to die is invisible "nothingness."
What if the above relationship is inverted? No way!
For example, if there is treachery in society, how can it be removed?
We should not use the means of discernment and harshness to harshly rebuke who is a traitor and which acts are treacherous. Instead, we should find a way to impress people with sincerity. If people don't have this heart, they will naturally not be treacherous. The more one puts on a clear-sighted appearance to criticize people, the easier it is to create a large number of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and honest people who originally did not want to be treacherous have to be treacherous, while treacherous and sinister people are instead tempered and become more treacherous.
Luxury not only wastes a lot of social resources, but also makes people impetuous. But how to put an end to luxury?
It is not a prohibition, but a mandatory standard for people to set consumption. It is in the monarch himself who is less selfish. What is good on the top will be worse for the bottom. Everyone has no desire for luxury, naturally not luxury.
Similarly. To stop thieves, they care about desire, not severe punishment; people have no desire, naturally they do not want to steal. To calm down the litigation, it is not about judging the litigation well, people have the heart to resign, and naturally they do not want to argue.
To sum up, the governance of various social ills lies in attacking the heart, not in prohibiting them. The heart is the essence, and the deeds are the end.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" >(4) For Confucian teachings:</h1>
The same reasoning is that the benevolence, righteousness, and filial piety advocated by Confucianism are good things, but this is the end. Another essence is to see the simplicity and be less selfish.
If the monarch only thinks about benevolence and righteousness, and desperately advocates benevolence, he will breed a group of hypocrites, because everyone knows that it is beneficial to make a benevolent appearance. The more you pursue right and wrong, the stronger man's disguise.
This is like the current education, the primary school entrance examination, the middle school entrance examination, the college entrance examination, the parents will deliberately give their children what to raise, the social teaching and auxiliary institutions will follow the trend to collect money, teach you a variety of problem-solving skills.
For example, the Olympiad problem that everyone criticizes has actually been difficult for many mathematicians, but this kind of Olympiad problem is difficult to say that it cultivates children's interest in mathematics, and may also be interested in mechanical exam training.
The correct approach is to return to the students' natural and innocent interest in mathematics, music and art, truly feel the beauty of classical literature, and really go to nature to purify the body and mind, and do physical exercise in the sun. Instead of using these as tools to profit from further education.
I think Wang Bi has three points to pick out what Lao Tzu did not explicitly say.
First, Lao Tzu's "nothingness" is actually the "human heart." The so-called relationship between being and non-being, the relationship between the original and the end, is actually the relationship between the "mind and the deeds." Because the human mind cannot see, it is "nothing"; the walk can be observed, so it is "being".
Second, "none" is closely related to another word that The Wei and Jin people like to use——— and naturally ------. "Nature" is actually another aspect of the human heart, emphasizing the conscious voluntariness of the human heart. Therefore, to be based on nothingness is to be based on nature.
Third, he specifically interpreted the phrase in the Tao Te Ching, "Absolutely holy abandons wisdom, and the people benefit a hundredfold; absolute benevolence abandons righteousness, and the people restore filial piety; absolutely skillfully abandons profit, and thieves have nothing."
He believes that Lao Tzu is in favor of wisdom, benevolence, and ingenuity, and that the so-called "absolute" is not to reject this thing, but to reject a method of forcibly taking it. Lao Tzu's words have always been considered by Confucians to be a sign of Lao Tzu's anti-Confucianism. The separation between the two confucian families. It has been a public case for thousands of years, but Wang Bi's statement actually bridges this divide.
Whether it is something out of nothing, or the end of the worship of the essence, in the final analysis, it is all about working people's hearts.
Author: Xu Hua, the main speaker of the column "Exploring the Traces of Wei Jin's Demeanor"
For more exciting explanations, go to the column to watch