In Chinese history, although hundreds of scholars have devoted a lot of effort to annotating the various classics of Confucianism and Taoism, due to the lack of historical materials, it is difficult for people today to associate the commentaries of many interpreters with the "practical wisdom" of hermeneutics. Interestingly, the interpretations of the Tao Te Ching by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, and Zu Fulin of the Qing Dynasty are quite consistent with the rationale of Western hermeneutics (1). Generally speaking, the commentary (2) of the Emperor's Tao Te Ching not only includes the "understanding and interpretation" of the text, but also practices its ideological propositions as a motto for governing the country and the people and a guide to standing in the world, reflecting the four major elements of hermeneutics' "understanding, interpretation, application and practical ability", especially the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who rose from the bottom of society, and has outstanding performance in "practical wisdom". Zhu Yuanzhang's only purpose in interpreting the Tao Te Ching was to achieve good governance and seek the wisdom of the sages, and in his desire to achieve good governance and seek the wisdom of the sages, he focused his attention on the Tao Te Ching, and looked at the various commentaries of "people with different views", and felt that the predecessors had not yet fulfilled their deep meaning, so they carefully pondered and thought independently, "Using God to coil his books for a long time, with his own opinion, it seems to be quite knowledgeable." The Tao Te Ching became the treasure book of his desk, "repeating the Sutra of Ess, taking a closer look at the use of its text" and "exploring the slightest purpose of its first and second". In his political activities, Zhu Yuanzhang took the time to make chapter-by-chapter commentaries on the Tao Te Ching, the sole purpose of which was to govern the world through the country and establish a life, "to know the dan of the decay, to do his best, to benefit future generations" [1]475-476. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching was closely related to the social reality and theoretical needs of the time, highlighting the distinctive characteristics of the practical application of the world and the close integration of theory and practice.
First, the different interpretation from the dimension of self-discipline and self-respect
Self-discipline and self-respect are the main themes that run through the political thought of the Tao Te Ching, and as an emperor who rose to the lowest level of society, Zhu Yuanzhang deeper understood the importance of self-discipline and self-respect for the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he combined the political reality of the time to expound the relevant ideas of Lao Tzu, and many views were the deepening of Lao Tzu's thought. However, it is worth noting that based on the position of valuing the people, Zhu Yuanzhang made another ingenious interpretation of the text of the Tao Te Ching. For example, the twelfth chapter of the Tao Te Ching says: "The five colors are blinding, the five tones are deaf, the five tastes are refreshing, the hunting in the fields is maddening, and the rare goods are obstructive." It is the saint who is not the eye, so go to the other to take this. This passage is Lao Tzu's vigilance and drinking of people indulging in sensory pleasures, and Zhu Yuanzhang first follows Lao Tzu's train of thought and understands it as an admonition and restraint for those who are politicians. He said: "This is a good command against greed, no play, beautiful voice, expensive goods and wealth. This text is not deep, that is, the outside is a bird famine, the inside is a color famine, the drunkenness is sound, and the Junyu carved wall is also. Next, Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation is quite unique. He interprets the "belly" of "actual belly" as the people, and his text reads:
"Belly", Yu Min also. "Therefore, the belly of the truth", the five colors, the five tones, the five tastes, the hunting, and the goods and treasures all want to make the people happy, and the king does not take what the king has, that is, he gives up the other and takes this. The way of "after the body and the body first, outside the body and the body" is also, wonderful! ［1］76
The original meaning of the phrase "for the belly and not for the purpose" in the Tao Te Ching is to advocate the internal rather than the outside, and to maintain a quiet life without being disturbed by the pleasures of the senses. Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation can be described as ingenious, he first emphasized the self-restraint of politicians in material life, and then turned the pen sharply, emphasizing that these material enjoyments should "all want to make the people happy", and although the monarch has them, he does not take advantage of them, so that he can "first" and "exist" and consolidate political power. Zhu Yuanzhang interpreted Lao Tzu's rejection of the five colors, five tones, five flavors, and hunting goods from the perspective of self-restraint of politicians, which was well versed in Lao Tzu's will to worship frugality and suppress luxury, and at the same time he emphasized that allowing the people to enjoy these material conditions, "all want to make the people happy", is an important development and transcendence of Lao Tzu's above ideas.
Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of Lao Tzu's idea of frugality and widowhood has its profound historical background, that is, what hermeneutics calls "foresight". On the one hand, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a humble background, lived in the lowest level of society for a long time, and personally experienced and witnessed the poor and hard life of the people at the bottom of society; on the other hand, the consequences caused by the extravagant life of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty made him unforgettable. In order not to follow the mistake of the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang once used the example of the Yuan Dynasty monarch to educate future generations: "The ancestors of the Yuan Dynasty reigned, and they practiced frugality and simplicity, and thus became the cause of unification." To Emperor Gengshen, he was arrogant and extravagant, and the meat of the sorghum was in the dog, causing resentment and anger to the gods, and the escape was not over, and the defeat followed. This modern event can be a clear lesson, and it is often used to train the sons and warn them, so that they can protect the country for a long time. ”［2］247
In order to seek the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang paid special attention to highlighting the importance and realism of the monarch in his interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and he expounded this truth by annotating the "Tao Te Ching" such sentences as "Do not want to be quiet, the world will be self-righteous". The text says: "For the king, be frugal first, so that the upward and downward effects will not be indulged." The king does what he does, and the rest do not wait to be transformed but self-incarnate, inevitably. ”［1］239-240
What is more noteworthy is that Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching is not only limited to the theoretical level, but also practices the propositions of advocating frugality and suppression of luxury, and the emperor's pre-frugality in political practice, and he often picks up the aphorisms in the "Tao Te Ching" when discussing the issue of governing the country with his subordinates, and runs through all aspects of life, reflecting the "application and practical ability" mentioned in hermeneutics. According to the "Chronicle of Allusions", soon after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, his subordinates sent the design drawings for the construction of the palace for review, and Zhu Yuanzhang adhered to the principle of frugality, "seeing his carvings and beauties, that is, going away." He also explained to the Zhongshu provincial ministers on this matter the importance of the monarch's reverence for frugality:
But the palace is only a complete solid, why should it be carved? Xi Yao Mao ci soil steps, the rafters are not cut, can be described as extremely ugly, but the ancient people are called ShengDe, headed by Yao. In the future generations, the competition is extravagant, the entertainment of the extreme palace room, the play of the poor public opinion, the desire is indulgent, the pawn is unstoppable, and the chaos is from the beginning. If the husband can worship frugality, there is no luxury under the bottom. I taste that pearls and jade are not treasures, frugality is treasures, there is a structure, a simple, why carve skillfully to the power of the world? ［3］9
After a military parade, Zhu Yuanzhang also told the generals to "guard against their indulgent hearts", and thus also derived a sense of compassion for the people and the people's sorrows and happiness, "You can think of the lowly, the rich can think of the poor", and only those who are "good at dealing with the rich" are the ones who "can worry with their worries, and enjoy the pleasures of the people"; "without violating the wishes of the people, They can meet the heart of heaven, and they can meet the heart of heaven, and They can enjoy wealth and nobility"[3]48. These words reflect Zhu Yuanzhang, as emperor, on the social issue of how the rich and noble at the top of society live in harmony with the poor and lowly in the lower class, and he emphasized that the rich and noble at the top of society should care for and sympathize with the lower class people in the position of poverty and lowliness, "not against the desires of the people", in order to "conform to the heart of heaven" and "enjoy wealth". These ideological propositions from the level of political practice and the above-mentioned notes in Chapter 12 on abstaining from greed, abstaining from extravagance, and "all want to make the people happy" can reflect the characteristics of Zhu Yuanzhang's old interpretation of ideas closely following realpolitik and applying them to the world.
2. Interpretation of the subject of the transformation
Proceeding from the political needs of governing the country and the people, Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of the text of the Tao Te Ching not only has its own understanding and expansion in the meaning of the text, but also transforms the actors in the text. This situation is more pronounced in chapters X and X42. For example, he notes the tenth chapter of the sentence "The beast that is born is born but not there, and is not ashamed of it": "Resting with the people and saving it is the animal that is born." If the king does not take it lightly, it is said that there is no one; the world is in peace, and the king does not allow himself to do his own ability, which is not arrogant. [1] 68 We know that with regard to the phrase "the animals of birth" in chapter 10, the imperial interpreters mostly interpret it as the sacred life and raising all things, for example, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and the Qing Dynasty Zu Fulin also commented on it as "making all things be born and animals are raised" and "living animals and all things", in these interpretations, the main body of "living animals" is a saint, and Zhu Yuanzhang, when interpreting this phrase, directly linked it to the issue of people's livelihood, and greatly expanded the connotation of the actor of "living animal". The author believes that in the sentence "Rest with the people and save up, it is said that the animals are born", although the main actors behind it are mainly monarchs, they also include the people. "Savings" is a moving sentence, the whole sentence means that the monarch should give the people a space to rest and recuperate, so that the people can have more than enough food and clothing, and have some savings; and in this relaxed social environment of recuperation, the people can have enough food and clothing to save up for their livelihood. And then immediately after saying that for the people's savings, "the king does not take it lightly", it can be seen that the main body of the savings behavior includes the people. Through this transformation, the political demand for those who serve the government to "rest with the people" and hide the wealth of the people is more prominent. This not only enriched the connotation of Lao Tzu's thought, but also reflected that the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from the people, had a more special concern for people's livelihood issues.
In chapter 42 (the passage is originally chapter 51), Zhu Yuanzhang also adopted the interpretation method of transforming the actor. The original meaning of "Tao Shengzhi and Virtue Accumulation" is to describe the "Tao" to give birth to all things and its "Xuande" of inaction and non-arrogance, and Lao Tzu used this to expound the nature of "Tao" and "Virtue" that incarnate all things without dominating and controlling. Zhu Yuanzhang, on the other hand, interpreted it as a virtue that a monarch should abide by, saying:
The four words of this life, animal, form, and form are said to be able to protect these four words by those who can rule the world, which is the luck of good caress. What about the first four words? Without Him, the One who is born, all things are also. The animal, who can give birth to all things and raise all things, is called an animal. Animals, divided into categories, make each of them give birth to their own, but they are shaped and their appearance, or incomplete, and they are formed by their potential. After all things have been blessed, they are not happy. If things are happy with the Destiny of Heaven, then the fortune of the Dry Yuan is taken advantage of by me, then it is the eternal prosperity of the country, and if so, is it not noble and evil? ...... If, in terms of morality, it is invisible and tangible, and the king of the world can hang on his clothes and sit on his fate, so that these two things will be circumvented without stopping, then the world will be in peace and tranquility, which is always natural. When the emperor makes his ministers enjoy themselves and have them, and grow their lengths without autonomy, they set up officials to reason with them. ［1］323
Here, the topics of "birth, animal, form, and formation" that discuss generative theory from the philosophical level were completely transformed by Zhu Yuanzhang into the theory of junde in the context of political ethics. In his view, a qualified monarch can not only give birth to all things, but also grow and develop in accordance with their nature, becoming their original form. What is particularly rare is that Zhu Yuanzhang did not abandon those who were "incomplete", but "became a body and became successful because of its potential", that is, to conform to its original situation and achieve its own life. At the end of the commentary on this chapter, Zhu Yuanzhang logically and directly transformed the "Xuande" of the "Tao" praised by Lao Tzu into the virtue of the monarch: "The emperor should make the envoys enjoy themselves and have their own, and they are long and not autonomous, and they set up officials to reason, and this Xuande is reasonable." Although Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation transforms the subject of action and replaces the "Tao" with the monarch, it still follows the inaction and non-arrogance of the "Tao". He is not trying to dominate the natural world or ride on nature, but to "care for the fortunes of Qianyuan", that is, to support and protect the natural operation of heaven and earth, on the basis of this "hanging clothes and sitting on fate", let the heavens and earth naturally be used by human beings - "the luck of Qianyuan is taken advantage of by me", and all beings in the world live happily between heaven and earth, realizing the political ideal of "Guozuo Yongchang".
By switching between the subjects of action, Zhu Yuanzhang shifted the elaboration of philosophical issues such as the creation of the "Tao" and the function of inaction in the text to the design of the moral behavior and ethical relationship of political subjects in real political life, which also highlighted the interpretation characteristics of Zhu Yuanzhang's learning and application.
Zhu Yuanzhang transformed the unique function of "birth, animal, form, and formation" of the Dao into the monarch's virtue of "good caress", which already had its ideological basis, and caring for the people was his consistent policy in political practice. According to historical records, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he warned the officials who went to Shandong to pay attention to raising the people, saying: "The people who are newly attached to the present day hope to cure the sick and hope for a good doctor." The art of medicine has attack and treatment, there is maintenance, the attacker cuts out foreign evil, and the maintainer supports the vitality. The mourning of the present people is the removal of external evils, and the desire to give birth to rest ears is also to support the vitality of the yuan. Those who keep the order should be attentive and take the word 'caress' as their heart, and do not be troubled. [3] 17-18 Here, Zhu Yuanzhang very appropriately applies the theory of Chinese medicine to drive away evil spirits and nourish qi to the issue of governing the country and the people, emphasizing "taking the word 'fu' as the heart", fully embodying the heart of supporting the people and sympathizing with the people's feelings.
Third, the deepening interpretation of the language of governance and cooking
Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching is often further deepened through political practice, and his interpretation of the phrase "governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh" is an example. When he explained that "if you rule a big country, you should cook a small fresh": "Those who govern the world well must not have the luxury of using the people's wealth to work hard!" If the extravagant ones are in power, they will be served and moved, and the people's agriculture will be wasted, and the lack of use of the national danger, so it is set up as a metaphor for cooking small fresh. [1] 372 Lao Tzu's phrase "if you rule a big country if you cook small fresh" is a metaphor for the image of "cooking small fresh", warning those who serve the government not to disturb the people. Zhu Yuanzhang, on the other hand, followed Lao Tzu's train of thought and further linked it to the actual situation of political life, concretizing the idea of "ruling a big country if it cooks small things" into the proposition of "not having the luxury to waste the people's wealth and exerting its strength"; at the same time, he also revealed the harm caused to the people and the country by the emperor's extravagance and unauthorized use of military service, thus improving the operability of this famous saying of governing the country.
Zhu Yuanzhang not only deepened the connotation of this phrase in theory, but also integrated it into political life. When discussing the issue of governing the country with his subordinates, he once said: "For the sake of governance, there is a slow and urgent way to govern, and the people who are in chaos must not be urgent, and if they are in a hurry, they will benefit from chaos; the people should not be disturbed; if they are disturbed, they will not be ruled." Therefore, although the words of cooking fresh food are small, they can be metaphorically large; although the theory of governing the rope is shallow, it can be metaphorically deep. [3] 87 The policy of not being anxious and undisturbable when governing the people and caring for the people emphasized here is precisely zhu Yuanzhang's concrete play of the phrase "if the country is ruled by cooking a big country" from the level of political practice, and the words "cooking fresh words" and "can be metaphorically big" in the text reflect his identification with this language, and the words "the theory of governing the rope" and "can be metaphorically deep" are also praise for the eightieth chapter of the Tao Te Ching, "making the people re-knot the rope and use it". For another example, Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of Lao Tzu's "way of heaven, the way of heaven, the way of heaven, the way of the heavens, the way of the heavens, the way of the lost and the insufficient", is also a deepening of lao tzu's relevant ideas. He said:
Whoever rules the world, the country has enough to use and has no surplus, and if there is a surplus, the people will be poor. If there is a surplus to give to the people, then the world will be peaceful, and the king's way will be clear. Its subjects have no praises, the Heavenly Phase Bang Family, the Kingdom Eternal and Chang, why care about the honor of Maya? In this way, the king is on the top, the subject is on the bottom, and the long period of health is not constant? Those who practice this path are harmonious at home and neighbor, friends are lifelong and not evil, and the poor give them unfavorable, but they are virtuous. ［1］450
The original meaning of Lao Tzu's phrase is to require the equalization and harmony of the politicians to imitate the laws of nature, and to reduce the polarization of wealth in human society that "loss is not enough to be more than enough". Zhu Yuanzhang expounded this idea in depth, and at the same time put forward the proposition that "the national economy is sufficient but there is no surplus", that is, as long as the government's finances are sufficient, it is not necessary to accumulate too much wealth, otherwise it will harm the interests of the people. It can be seen that from the height of the state economic policy, Zhu Yuanzhang interpreted the extremely insightful conclusion that the accumulation of national wealth in a certain degree, the wealth of the country and the poverty of the people, and further deepened Lao Tzu's views of opposing the division between the rich and the poor and opposing the accumulation of rulers.
Fourth, the interpretation of the warning object has been expanded
In the process of annotating the Tao Te Ching, Zhu Yuanzhang also made a change in the direction of the original meaning of the text. For "the people are not afraid of might, and the mighty is supreme." There is no fox to live in, no to be tired of what is born. The interpretation of the passage "Husband is not a fox, but is not tired", which is a more typical example.
Jing Yun: "The people are not afraid of might, and the might is great." "Whoever speaks of the king of the world, and adds to the world with violence, if the people are afraid in the beginning, if they are not afraid for a long time, and if they are not afraid of Fang Sheng, then the great calamity of the country will be so great that it cannot be relieved." In the ordinary days of the scholars, they must not arbitrarily slow down the law, and if they are insulted by others, if they commit criminal acts in one day, they will not be able to protect their bodies. If you speak of the king, the great calamity is the great power, and the soldiers are the great power of the constitution. ［1］430
The meaning of Lao Tzu's words was originally to warn the ruler not to abuse tyrannical authority, and its meaning was directed to the ruler as a whole. Zhu Yuanzhang, on the other hand, pointed the object of his admonition to all levels of society- "it is said that the kings and courtiers and the scholars should cultivate themselves and act prudently, and stop the road of service." The first half is a warning to the monarch: if the monarch blindly suppresses the people of the world by violence, it will eventually lead to the great disaster of the country. In the second half, he warns Shi Shu that if he ignores the law and arbitrarily slows down the law on weekdays, he will eventually violate the criminal law and lose his reputation. In addition, he also put forward the requirements for self-cultivation and discipline for people from all walks of life, such as wang chen and shishu:
And there is no fox to live in, no tired of his birth, the king should not spend more flowers, do not leave the palace, be cautious, do not approach the good, do not spend money on civilian use, do not work, move when the time, the courtiers do not approach the foolish and fierce, do not destroy the skills of people.
The original meaning of "no fox dwells in one's own place, no one is tired of one's birth" is to warn those who serve the government not to force the people's dwelling place and not to squeeze the people's lives. However, Zhu Yuanzhang turned it into a specific behavior constraint on the king and his subjects: the king should worship frugality and luxury, and abide by the "six don'ts" and "do not work without reason, and move in time"; while the courtiers should be cautious in words and deeds, "do not approach foolishness and fierceness, and do not destroy people's skills.".
This interpretation of the direction of transformation is also reflected in the note below. Zhu Yuanzhang commented on "Who is the name and the body?" How much is there in the body and goods? What is the disease of death or death? Therefore, if you love very much, you will spend a lot of money, and if you hide more, you will die, and if you are content, you will not be humiliated, and you will not perish, and you can stay long." The chapter points out: "His abstinence from greedy people is specially based on the words 'even' and 'many', inheriting the above text, and receiving them with the word 'knowing', and then showing them with the word 'long', so I am better than the clouds." This commentary is basically a deepening of laozi texts, and the subsequent commentaries undergo some changes in the direction of interpretation. Its text reads: "The great office of the kingdom, the extreme position of the official under the king, if it is not the mandate of heaven, abandon it and love the throne, can it be?" The Six Secretaries are not the king's orders and live in the phase, can you? In order, all ministries are the same. The meaning is obvious, here is no longer a general exhortation to restrain their desires, to know and contentment, but to direct the words to all government officials, especially the court officials, warning them not to covet the "throne" and "phase". Zhu Yuanzhang, who leapt from the bottom of society to the ninth five-year-old, in order to consolidate the power of the Zhu Ming Dynasty, further focused and concretized Lao Tzu's warning to the greedy, emphasizing that "if it is not the mandate of heaven, abandoning it and loving the throne, it is okay", revealing his sincere vigilance and precaution against usurpers, containing the deep meaning of warning the unscrupulous.
Fifth, the interpretation of the original meaning of wandering
Zhu Yuanzhang was born in the grassroots, his education level is limited, coupled with the practical attitude towards the text of the Tao Te Ching, so it is inevitable that there will be far-fetched attachments in the annotations. For example, his interpretation of "Xiyan Nature" is a typical example. The "Xiyan" in Lao Tzu's "Xiyan Nature" refers to less speech, and by extension means to give less sound to teach the law. Therefore, "Xiyan Nature" means that it is natural not to impose government decrees, which is similar to Lao Tzu's "teaching of doing what is not said" and quiet and inaction. In particular, the following verse, "Therefore the wind does not end, and the rain does not end", expresses the resistance to the tyranny of the "drifting wind" and "sudden rain", and is a warning to the rulers who abuse severe punishment and harsh government.
Zhu Yuanzhang, on the other hand, made this understanding:
This cloud villain imitates the Taoist as such, and the political party is in the heart, and has long hoped to praise, so it is said to be a wishful word. Hopefully, I hope that people will speak well. And the natural one, repeat the precepts of the very Tao... Therefore, "The heavens and the earth cannot last long, but the situation is not as good as the people?" "Therefore, the speaker, if the words of the Prophet Are like a storm, even if they have it, they cannot last long, so they are better than the clouds." ［1］154
The above passage understands the "Xiyan" in "Xiyan Nature" as the expectation of praise for politicians in the process of governance, "hoping that people will speak well", which is obviously far-fetched and quite unreasonable in terms of meaning. However, through this interpretation, Zhu Yuanzhang led to the conclusion that "if the Words of Bixi are in a stormy state, even if they have them, they cannot last long", thus warning the politicians not to only hope for the praise of their subordinates, which still has political significance that cannot be ignored.
Zhu Yuanzhang's vigilance against words of praise was based on a reference to the lessons of history. He realized that "the dynasty of qingming, the eyes and ears are clear, the world is dark, and the wisdom is hidden inside." The outer general rule is that there is no barrier under the outer rule, and the inner cover is like deafness, and whether the state governs or not is really related to this"[3]57. In particular, the lessons of the Yuan Dynasty have prompted him to be eager to speak out. In the twenty-fifth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1365), he told Teng Yi and Yang Xunwen, who were the authors of the living notes, that the disciples of the Yuan Dynasty ministers did not dare to advise directly, "only to seek harmony with each other", which led to confusion between the upper and lower levels and accelerated the decline of the dynasty. And when the master is defeated, he himself is guilty. Zhu Yuanzhang hoped to warn Teng and Yang through this historical lesson, pointing out that the duty of the living officials was to "lose loyalty and accept the teachings, to the Lord in the place of no fault, and then to fulfill his duties"[4]86.
Zhu Yuanzhang's far-fetched interpretation of the meaning of the Tao Te Ching is also reflected in his commentary on chapter 62. The original text of this chapter reads: "Man is born weak, and his death is strong." The life of the grass and trees is also soft and brittle, and its death is also withered. Therefore, the strong die, and the weak are born. Zhu Yuanzhang made this comment:
Weak, strong, soft and brittle, withered, metaphorically, the so-called words of life and death with their cultivation is also. Can it be known that the weak and fragile are born, the strong and withered and all die, and its knowledge of cultivation is saved? If you know how to cultivate, what is the source of weakness and fragility? In this heaven and earth, all things are all blessed with it, and they care about nurturing and not nurturing, and whether they can do it or not. If the king and the subjects, the king uses this way to rule the world, the subject uses this way to be loyal and filial to both, Kuang Jun does not slacken off, and the people use this, and the family is prosperous. Isn't the opposite of the Taoist strong and withered? ［1］446
In this chapter, he first interprets the meaning of the text from the perspective of health maintenance, believing that Lao Tzu discusses the way of health in terms of weakness, strength, fragility, and dryness, and that those who know how to adhere to the path of weakness and fragility can live forever, and vice versa. The "Qi of the Heaven and Earth Avenue" is the source of the path of weakness, and all things are nourished by this qi, and health care is to be good at nourishing qi and practicing qi. However, what is quite abrupt is that his thinking jumped directly from health maintenance to the political ethics of the monarchs and the people, and regarded this weak way from the "qi of the avenue of heaven and earth" as the ethical principle of ruling the world, the loyalty and filial piety of the subjects, and the rejuvenation of the people. "The king uses this way to rule the world, the subject uses this way to be loyal and filial, kuang jun does not slacken off, and the common people use this, and the family is prosperous." In this way, the thesis of "being able to know the weakness and fragility and be born" has changed from the topic of longevity at the individual level to the way of governing the country and rejuvenating the whole body in the social field. At first glance, I feel that Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation is very blunt and far-fetched, because maintaining weakness is mainly a personal disposition, health or moral cultivation, and there seems to be no direct relationship with the political ethics of ruling the world, practicing loyalty and filial piety, and the family ethics of xingjia. But if you think about it, there is no shortage of merit. Here, Zhu Yuanzhang, as an absolute monarch, enshrined the path of weakness as a principle that all strata should observe, rather than merely requiring his subjects to be soft and weak and obey orders, but also emphasizing that the monarch could use this path to achieve "rule under heaven". That is to say, the monarch should rule the world with judo, not be self-conscious, should not be forced to control, should not engage in authoritarian tyranny, otherwise, "those who oppose this way, are not strong and withered?" From the perspective of political governance, Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation as an absolute monarch is of positive significance.
epilogue
Zhu Yuanzhang's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching from the folk has a strong meaning of "fusion of horizons", that is, starting from his current situation, to contact the horizon of the text, to grasp the meaning revealed by the text. Therefore, although he claimed to "explore the meaning of the first two", with the goal of revealing and interpreting the original meaning of the classics and the meaning of the saints, he always based himself on the actual political and theoretical needs of the time, tried to express and expound his own governing philosophy through the words of Lao Tzu, and demonstrated the distinctive characteristics of practical application through the ages and the close integration of theory and practice. Therefore, among the four elements of hermeneutics of "understanding, interpreting, applying and practicing ability", although he is inferior to other emperors in terms of "understanding and interpretation", he is a unique model in terms of "applied and practical ability".
exegesis
(1) Mr. Hong Handing, a well-known expert in hermeneutics, once summarized the basic elements of western contemporary hermeneutics, and he believed that the meaning of the word hermeneutics should be grasped from at least the following four aspects: "The ability to understand, interpret, apply and practice, the first three aspects are inseparable components of the unification process, and the meaning of the last aspect shows that it is not a linguistic science or contemplative theory, but a practical wisdom." Hong Handing, editor-in-chief: Understanding and Interpretation: Selected Classics of Hermeneutics, Oriental Publishing House, 2001, p. 7. (2) According to the literature, eight emperors, including Emperor Wu of Liang, Emperor Wen of Liangjian, Emperor Xiaowen of Wei, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, wrote notes for Laozi. The notes of Emperor Wu of Liang and four other emperors have been lost, and only the titles of the books are found in relevant historical books: according to the Book of Wei and Guanshi Zhi, Emperor Xiaowen of Wei composed two volumes of the Commentary on Laozi; according to the Old Book of Tang, Emperor Wu of Liang wrote six volumes of Laozi Shuo; And Liang Jianwen Emperor wrote the Private Records of LaoZi in ten volumes (see Liu Xun et al., on the Records of the Classics, Volume 47 of the Old Book of Tang, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1975 edition, p. 2028).
bibliography
LIU Shaojun. Tang Xuanzong, Song Huizong, Ming Taizu and Qing Shizu, "Lao Tzu" Royal Review[M].Changsha: Hunan People's Publishing House, 1997.
[2] Ming Taizu Sermon: Vol. IV[M].Taipei: Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 1962.
Yu Jideng. Allusions[M].Beijing:Zhonghua Bookstore,1981.]
Xia Xie. Ming Tongjian Ed.: Vol. 3[M].Changsha: Yuelu Book Society, 1997.
About author:Lv Xichen, female, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Philosophy of Central South University, executive dean of the Institute of International Communication of Taoism of Central South University (410012 Changsha, Hunan), mainly engaged in the study of Taoist Taoist culture and traditional Chinese ethical thought.
Source: Central Plains Cultural Studies