Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching, which was born more than 2,500 years ago, has always been a strange book that people rush to study. Throughout the ages, there have been no less than 300 interpretations of it.
As Shakespeare said, "In the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Hamlets." "In the eyes of many critics, the Tao Te Ching also presents a variety of forms -- some people say that it talks about the way to rule the world, some people say that it talks about health, some people say that it talks about the Heavenly Dao, some people say that it talks about the art of immortality, and even more, according to its account, some people have refined various kinds of magic medicines and Dan pills...
However, what is the Tao Te Ching? The mysteries surrounding it are divided into different opinions and disagreements.
The Tao Te Ching
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The Tao Te Ching has been circulated to the present day, and after countless people have deleted and revised, the font, glyphs, and meanings have also undergone great changes, resulting in as many as 100 existing versions.
At present, the most popular version should be the Tao Te Ching annotated by the Metaphysician Wang Bi during the Wei and Jin dynasties. However, it is recognized that the closest thing to the original is the manuscript excavated in 1973 at the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha.
Why? Because this version is the oldest and most complete.
The book is not called the Tao Te Ching, but is called the Five Thousand Words of Lao Tzu, which is divided into two books, A and B, and the content is also slightly different. Among them, Jia Ben did not shy away from the "Bang" character of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and it can be speculated that its transcription date was earlier than Liu Bang's reign and should be at the time of Qin and Han; Yi Ben avoided the word "Bang", but did not avoid the "Ying" and "Heng" characters of Liu Ying and Liu Heng, and it can be speculated that its transcription date should be before Emperor Hui of Han, that is, before 210 BC.
In 1993, in the Chu Tomb no. 1 Guodian in Jingmen City, Hubei Province, a large number of bamboo janes were unearthed, including the "Tao Te Ching", which is known as the Chu Jian Ben of the "Tao Te Ching".
After research, the age of The Chu Jian Ben is the oldest, only about 200 years after the era of Lao Tzu, but unfortunately, the Chu Jian Ben is all fragments and very incomplete. Further comparisons found that there was also a big difference between the Chu Jian Ben and the Shu Ben.
In this regard, it has been suggested that the author of the Tao Te Ching may not be Lao Tzu alone.
So, who is Lao Tzu? Why did he write such a remarkable book?
Lao Tzu is out of the customs
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Who is the author of the Tao Te Ching? Let's take a look at what Sima Qian said.
According to the records of the "Records of History", there are many legends about the identity of Laozi, and Sima Qian adopted three of them: First, "the surname Li, the name ear, the character 聃, and the history of the Zhou Shou Tibetan Room", which is also the most widely circulated. Lao Tzu saw that the Zhou Dynasty was in decline, so he went west to live in seclusion, and when he arrived at Hangu Pass, at the request of the general Yin Xi, he wrote a book, namely the Tao Te Ching; second, Lao Laizi, a Chu state, wrote 15 books about the role of Taoism; third, Tai Shi Dan of the Zhou Dynasty met with Qin Xiangong and had famous prophecies about the general situation in the world, so some people thought that he was LaoZi.
So, who is Lao Tzu? Why did he write the Tao Te Ching?
This has to start from the ancient times of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors.
As we all know, China is dominated by agricultural civilization, and the growth of crops is most seriously affected by the weather. Therefore, since the three emperors and five emperors, weather forecasting has become the core technology and top secret of a tribe and a country. How is weather forecasting achieved? Rely on celestial observation.
That's how gossip comes about. By observing the operation law of the sun, moon and stars for a long time, Fu Xishi summed up the concept of yin and yang, and deduced the five elements of gossip. Later, Zhou Gong further deduced bagua into sixty-four gua and formed yi.
This is the earliest and oldest "meteorological monograph" in China.
Such a confidential cutting-edge technology is naturally the "patent" of the royal family.
However, relying on the operation of the five elements of gossip, although it is possible to judge the alternation of the four seasons of the year (to guide farmers to sow and harvest), it is impossible to accurately predict the weather, and the guidance of farming is not accurate enough.
Those in power are perfected in two aspects: First, science and technology are not enough, and experience is made up. To this end, successive dynasties have set up special departments, set up special personnel, responsible for records, which is the historical official. Historians are also divided into several categories, some specifically recording the words and deeds of the emperor, some responsible for sorting out historical books, some responsible for collecting folk customs, some recording celestial changes, and so on;
Second, experience is pushed backwards and the theory is enhanced. So many historians have constantly recorded the words and deeds of their predecessors, thoughts and thoughts, and over time they have formed big data, and then based on big data, they have improved the theory, and gradually formed the theories of heaven and dry earth branch, twenty-eight stars, twenty-four solar terms, etc., which have greatly improved the efficiency of farming.
These technologies are all "exclusive" to the royal family, which is a big premise. The person who helped the royal family to manage these "black technologies" was the historian, which was roughly equivalent to today's libraries, museum directors, and administrators.
The prince headed towards Ben Chu
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In the eastern weekend, Lao Tzu became the librarian in charge of "black technology".
As Lao Tzu's colleague Borges said, "The library is the most beautiful place in the human world, and the librarian is the best profession", Lao Tzu learned from the national library, naturally knew the "black technology" accumulated by the dynasties and became the chief scientist of the Great Zhou.
If that hadn't happened, maybe his life would have been more brilliant, and we wouldn't have seen more than just the Tao Te Ching.
Unfortunately, the sky is not the way anyone wants.
What is your Word? In the seven hundred years of history of the Zhou Dynasty, it is nothing, but in the cultural history of the Chinese nation, it is definitely an epoch-making event.
That is "Prince Chao Ben Chu".
According to the "Zuo Biography", in 527 BC, the queen and crown prince Shou of King Jing of Zhou died one after another, without concubines. Prince Chao was the eldest son of Shu. According to the ceremonial system, King Jing of Zhou prepared to make the prince of the prince, but was opposed by the ministers, and everyone wanted to make the half-disciple of the Zi Dynasty the prince.
For the sake of the stability of the royal family, King Jing of Zhou vigorously eradicated Zi Meng's forces and removed obstacles to the succession of the Zi Dynasty. In 520 BC, he was ready to kill two more of Zi Meng's allies, but he did not expect to do anything, and hung up first.
In order to compete for the king's power, the Zi Dynasty and the Zi Meng fought fiercely for seven years. As a result, the prince failed and had to flee to the Chu state, where he was stabbed to death in 505 BC. This is the general course of the "Prince Chao Ben Chu".
In the five-thousand-year history of China, this kind of court struggle has emerged in an endless stream, and everyone is not surprised. For those in it, however, change is decisive.
Lao Tzu is one of them. At that time, he was serving as the director of the National Library, immersed in the ocean of knowledge every day. However, when the prince went to Ben chu, he swept away the classics and books of the Zhou royal family.
Lao Tzu was unemployed and was not worried. Without books as a companion, Lao Tzu had to sit and meditate by the river every day. In the end, he decided to go west to live in seclusion, which led to Hangu Guan's writing of the Tao Te Ching.
The Tao Te Ching is a simplified version of the Chu
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Why did Lao Tzu write the Tao Te Ching?
As the head of the library, Lao Tzu's responsibility was not as simple as managing books (in fact, no one could enter the library to borrow books at that time), in addition to sorting out and copying the classics of the previous dynasty, he also regularly published research reports, provided policy advice to the king's governance of the country, and guided agricultural production.
That is to say, the director of the library also has to serve as the director of the policy research office, the director of the intelligence bureau, the president of the Academy of Sciences, and other positions, and his position in the imperial court can be seen, and the resources he has are naturally unmatched by other officials.
Therefore, Lao Tzu's loneliness after losing his job can be imagined, and his move to go out of HanguGuan in the west can be understood. Came to Hangu Pass and met Guan Ling Yin Xi. Yin Xi knew that as the chief scientist of the Great Zhou, if he did not leave only a few words, it would be a great loss, so he exchanged 50 burnt cakes for a copy of the Tao Te Ching.
In fact, Lao Tzu knows that when he goes, the wisdom inheritance of the dynasties and dynasties is interrupted, in order to continue the wisdom of civilization, he must also summarize the ancient people's understanding of the heavenly path and personnel affairs and leave it to future generations.
That is to say, the author of the Tao Te Ching is Lao Tzu, but it is not his original, but the crystallization of the wisdom of successive dynasties.
This is why the Tao Te Ching is called the "first of all the scriptures."
So, what exactly does the Tao Te Ching say? Why did its earliest version (Chu Jian) appear in the territory of the Chu State? What impact will it have on future generations? Interested friends, you can pay attention to the next article of the editor.
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