What is Lao Zi's ideal social realm in his exploration?

Laozi is a critical political paper written by a scholar named Lao Dan (who lived between 57 1 year BC and 47 1 year BC) in China in the late Spring and Autumn Period, aiming at the social outlook, political situation and people's mood at that time. The article not only reflects the social reality at that time, but also expounds its own political proposition and theoretical basis, that is, the "Tao" theory founded by the author. Therefore, this is a realistic critical political theory that integrates society, nature and humanities, and literature, history and philosophy. The full text is more than 5,000 words, or "Laozi's 5,000 Articles". For more than two thousand years, the true face of Laozi has been forgotten by the dust of history, and only the fake version of Tao Te Ching has been circulated in the world, so that the evaluation of Laozi and his author has caused many mysteries that are difficult to solve. So far, the academic circles can only define it as "philosophical works" and "Taoist classics" according to the classic words and phrases in its texts. "Cihai" cloud: "Laozi", title. Also known as Tao Te Ching and Laozi's Five Thousand Articles. The main classics of Taoism. Legend has it that it was written by Lao Dan at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. You Yun: Laozi is said to be a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period and the founder of Taoism. Lao Dan, whose real name is Li Minger, whose name is Bo Yang, was born in Qurenli, Li Xiang, Guxian County, Chu (now Lu Yidong, Henan Province), and was appointed as "the history of keeping warehouses" (the history of managing warehouses) in the Zhou Dynasty. Confucius once asked him for a gift, then retired and wrote Laozi. When I say Lao Tzu, I mean Tai Shiyun or Lao Laizi. Sima Qian's Historical Records describes it like this: "Lao Tzu Xiu De, his learning is hidden in the unknown. After living in Zhou for a long time, I saw Zhou's decline and went. At the critical moment, he ordered Yin to say,' I want to hide, and I want to write a book for myself.' So he wrote a book and said more than five thousand words about morality. He didn't know what his end was. "The above is the authoritative statement about Laozi and its author status that we can find at present. In fact, there are still many doubts about these statements, which cannot be justified. What * * * have in common is that the Tao Te Ching is written by Lao Zi and Lao Dan. Whether Laozi was written by Laozi has always been controversial. Moreover, for more than two thousand years, people have been arguing about the ideological content of the book Tao Te Ching, but no one has ever doubted the true face of the origin of Tao Te Ching. Even in 1973, among the cultural relics unearthed from Mawangdui No.3 Han Tomb, there is a manuscript of Laozi, and it has been proved that this is the closest text version of Laozi. However, people pay attention to it not because of the great difference in ideological content between the Chinese and silk version of Laozi and the current version of Tao Te Ching, but because of its calligraphy art and its correction effect on individual sentences in the current version of Tao Te Ching. It may be that Laozi's concept has been deeply rooted in the Tao Te Ching and has been formed for more than two thousand years. Therefore, more than 30 years later, people still hold the Tao Te Ching and call it Laozi, and they are still indifferent to the Chinese silk book that reveals the true content of Laozi, and do not explore it in depth from the ideological content. In fact, as long as the popular reading "Tao Te Ching" and China's silk book "Lao Zi" are simply compared, many problems will come out. If you ask a few more questions, why? A mystery that has blinded the academic circles for more than two thousand years will gradually surface. As long as we look at the surface first, we can find that there are many obvious differences between Laozi and Tao Te Ching. The most prominent point is that the structure of the article is different. The popular version of Tao Te Ching is divided into two parts, the first part is Tao and the second part is morality. The full text is divided into 8 1 chapters, which are relatively independent. Lao Zi, a silk book in the Han Dynasty, is different. In terms of content arrangement, morality comes first, and Taoism comes last. The full text is not divided into chapters. According to the classification method of Tong Ben, Chapter 24 of Tao Te Ching corresponds to the position of Chapter 22 of Tong Ben in China silk book Lao Zi. The forty-first chapter of Tao Te Ching corresponds to the position of the fortieth chapter of Laozi in China's silk book. Chapters 80 and 8 1 of Tao Te Ching correspond to the positions of chapters 67 and 68 of Laozi in China silk. In addition to the different positions of the above chapters, there are also many changes in the text. This is the obvious difference between the two. It shows that the Tao Te Ching has undergone passive major surgery, and the head, body, five internal organs, hands and feet have all been ectopic, and some parts have been replaced or removed. Although it was basically reassembled with the original "components", it has long been unrecognizable, not the original "Lao Zi"! From the analysis of the content of the article, due to the changes in structure and text, the original thinking has also undergone essential changes. First of all, Lao Tzu's true colors began with "virtue without virtue", which was a comment on the social situation at that time, and then led to the topic of "Tao". The Tao Te Ching begins with "Tao, which can be said, is not constant", and pulls the content originally in the second half of the article to the first half, reversing the cognitive relationship between existence and consciousness. According to the logical thinking of China's silk book "Lao Zi", morality should be emphasized before Taoism, and Taoism should be embodied in morality, that is, observing and analyzing things from a materialistic point of view and finding out the law of change. In the tampered Tao Te Ching, a "Tao" is pulled out of thin air at the beginning of the text, which makes the "Tao" that originally existed in objective reality become a subjective "Tao" that emerged from reality out of thin air. In this way, the existence of cognitive relationship is determined by the consciousness that Tao precedes morality and that virtue is superior to Tao. Originally a materialistic theory, it turned into an idealistic sermon. Secondly, the original "Laozi" is more than 5,000 words, from beginning to end, regardless of chapters, in one go according to the author's ideas. After dividing the article into 8 1 independent chapters, Tao Te Ching cut off the coherent meaning of the text, which caused a serious distortion of the original intention of the text out of context and completely changed the ideological essence and image of Laozi. For example, the twenty-fourth chapter of Tao Te Ching, a popular edition, should rank in the position of the twenty-second chapter of the current edition in Lao Zi, a silk book in China. The content is: "the cook does not stand up, and there is no chapter to look at himself. The person who sees it is unknown. Self-defeating is useless, and arrogant is not long. This is in the Tao, saying that eating is redundant. People who want to live because things are evil or evil is evil. " ; In this way, it is the content of Chapter 22 of the Tao Te Ching: "If you give up for gold, waste will be fixed, while we are full, we are new, if you get less, you will be confused." "It is based on people holding a loud voice and thinking that the world is eating grass. You can't see yourself clearly, you can't see your own chapter, you don't make meritorious deeds, and you grow up in compassion. Husband is just indisputable, so he can't refute it. How much empty talk did the so-called all-rounder in ancient times have? Sincerely return. " There can be contextual cohesion. But it became an independent chapter after the twenty-fourth chapter, which lost contact, destroyed the logic of the article and violated the author's original intention. It is worth mentioning that in the forty-first chapter of Tao Te Ching, the situation is more complicated. In China's silk book "Laozi", it should have been ranked in the 40th chapter of the current edition, and the last sentence is "The image is invisible, the Tao is hidden and nameless, and the husband only understands the Tao and makes good use of it." Lao Zi, a silk book in the Han Dynasty, said, "Heaven has no punishment, Tao is hidden and nameless, and the husband only cares about Tao, and it is good to start and finish." In other words, this sentence should not be attached to the back of this chapter, but should be the beginning of the next chapter. Because what we are talking about here is the relationship between the change of "astronomical phenomena" and "Tao" in nature, which is integrated with the following sentence, that is, the content of the fortieth chapter of the Tao Te Ching, which expresses the complete meaning of the role of "Tao" in the movement of nature. More noteworthy is the eightieth chapter of Tao Te Ching. In China's silk book Laozi, it should have been ranked in the position of Chapter 67 of the current edition; The content is also in the same strain as the previous 65 chapters, all of which are the leadership art and basic national policy of governing the country and keeping the country safe. Dragging it to the back of the article completely loses the internal connection with the contents of the first two chapters and becomes an unimaginable isolated topic. The original text of this passage in Laozi, a silk book in the Han Dynasty, reads as follows: "A small country with few people makes the tools of a hundred people useless, makes people die again and move far away, has no cars to ride, has no weapons to learn, and makes people use them again." I want to eat, I want to wear, I want to be vulgar, and I want to live. Neighborhood is relative, the sound of chickens and dogs is endless, and the people die of old age. Translated into modern language, it means: "Small neighbors, because there are very few people in war, it is impossible to continue to use the utensils that were originally used by 10 and 100 people; Make people face the threat of death and have to fly away; With transportation, nothing is useful; Armed weapons cannot be deployed; So that ordinary people can repeatedly use the knotting method to record information. Let them rest, eat sweet food, put on beautiful clothes, enjoy folk activities and live at home with peace of mind. Don't bother them any more, let the neighbors see each other, let the voices of chickens and dogs hear each other, and let ordinary people live and work in peace and contentment until they die of old age. "What a bleak and tragic scene this is! It should be said that this miserable scene is the evil result brought by long-term war to small neighbors; I just described it truthfully. In the current edition of Tao Te Ching, this passage has been changed to: "A small country with few people makes it possible to die again without using all kinds of tools, so that people do not have to move far away. Although they have a boat, they have nothing; Although there are soldiers, there is nothing to say; Let people use it again. Governance to the extreme, willing to eat, willing to be beautiful, willing to be safe, willing to enjoy customs. Neighboring countries look at each other, the voices of chickens and dogs are endless, and the people die of old age. "As an independent content, it is arranged in Chapter 80, which is far from its original position. The original "small country" was originally interpreted as "small neighbor", but it became the meaning of "independent small country" in Tao Te Ching. So the general explanation is this: "Make the country smaller and fewer people. Make big vessels useless, make people cherish life, and move not far away. Although there are cars and boats, there is no need to ride them. Although there are armor and soldiers, they don't need to be deployed to fight. Let people tie ropes as in ancient times to commemorate. People regard food as sweet, clothes as beautiful, customs as fun and home as comfort. Neighboring countries can see each other, chickens and dogs can hear each other, and people will not interact with each other until they die. " This passage has been interpreted as Lao Zi's utopian conception of "utopia" in Tao Te Ching for more than two thousand years, which has become the core idea of Lao Zi's thought. In fact, this passage, including the sentence "Let the people use it again", is just Lao Zi's description of the natural environment and social situation of "small country with few people, simple lifestyle, low educational level and lack of means of communication". It is by no means to turn all powerful countries into small countries, let all people live a primitive life and let the whole society go backwards. This is extremely absurd and absolutely impossible. Therefore, this is not Lao Tzu's "ideal country" thought at all, but the result of deliberate production by the brewer of Tao Te Ching for some purpose. When this passage is cut at the end of the whole article, it has no internal connection with the previous article; From the isolated words, it is impossible to judge the true meaning of the words describing these almost primitive social conditions; Therefore, I can only imagine it as the shadow of utopia "utopia" reluctantly, and regard it as the goal that Lao Tzu has been striving for. This is equivalent to splicing a dismembered body into a new image, creating a suitable shrine, and finally stuffing it into it to become an idol worshipped by all. This may be the most "appropriate" choice, but this is not the original intention of Lao Dan, the original author of Laozi, but only the meaning of later authors. Compared with Laozi, the silk book unearthed from the Han tomb, which is closest to the original appearance, it is not difficult to see that Laozi's thoughts and images reflected in Tao Te Ching have been deliberately reshaped and distorted, which is problematic. In China's silk book Laozi, the image of Laozi is: he is very concerned about current politics, and he is a thoughtful, critical and accomplished person; He is very familiar with all levels of society, from princes to the people, like the back of his hand; He has rich experience, profound knowledge and extensive concern, involving politics, economy, military affairs, culture, education and even diplomacy. He criticized the perversion and various unreasonable phenomena of social dignitaries at that time and expressed his political views, hoping to attract the attention of the mainstream of society. This was the only thing that intellectuals could do at that time. Such a man who knows the way of the world, has unique opinions, is well-known and deeply respected, and is completely different from the immortal image depicted in the popular reading Tao Te Ching, which is indifferent to social conditions and public opinion and takes transcendence and lofty inaction as its life creed. The main difference between China's silk book Laozi and the popular reading book Tao Te Ching lies in its content: China's silk book reflects Laozi's true thoughts, with materialism as its core and dialectics as its epistemology; The current version distorts Lao Tzu's true thoughts, the core of which is idealism and epistemological confusion. This is the result of reassembling the original text through word segmentation and inverted text. It can be seen that there are significant differences in the text structure between Laozi and Tao Te Ching, and the logic and ideological content of the article have also changed significantly due to reasons such as upside down, chapter division, paragraph exchange and text deletion. Strictly speaking, Tao Te Ching is no longer Laozi, nor can it be called Laozi's works, nor can it be used as a basis for studying Laozi's thoughts. Today, I found the original version of Laozi. If we continue to regard Tao Te Ching as Laozi, it is a blasphemy against Laozi's true thoughts, not a scientific attitude that should be adhered to. It should be said that the formation of Tao Te Ching was not achieved overnight. In Sima Qian's Historical Records, it is only said that "writing up and down means more than 5,000 words". It can be seen that there was no more change in the chapters of the full text at that time, but it was divided into two chapters, upside down. The annotations of "3,031 Virtues" and "2,426 Paths" in China's silk book Laozi (Second Edition) can confirm this point. The introduction of Buddhism and the spread of Buddhist scriptures played a vital role in the formation of the final appearance of Tao Te Ching. Buddhism's comment on Buddhist scriptures is, "The sutras are also the path. This sutra is the way to learn Buddhism. "Taoism" and Buddhism "Jing" should be basically the same in meaning, both of which contain the significance of the road to a better world in the future; The difference is that Buddhism's "Jing" is aimed at the spiritual world, while Taoism's "Dao" is aimed at the material world. According to the practice of Buddhist scriptures, later generations artificially divided Laozi's 5,000 works without chapters into the first and second chapters of 8 1 according to the number of "99", and called them Tao Te Ching. Moreover, during the Western Han Dynasty, a copy of Laozi's Tao Te Ching was published. In fact, it is absurd to tamper with it from the literary and rational point of view. Laozi is a brave man who dares to face the reality and a noble elder. In fact, we can't see any shadow of nihilism in Laozi at all, and it is difficult to find the basis of idealism. When the article was deleted and revised, there were many theories of metaphysics, idealism and nihilism. This is the case with the popular Tao Te Ching. Therefore, after knowing the ins and outs of Tao Te Ching and the true story of Laozi, Tao Te Ching can no longer be called Laozi, and the author of Tao Te Ching can no longer be called Lao Dan. In the face of conclusive facts, we can no longer lie with our eyes open. We should restore the true colors of history. Although we can't ask Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty to revise the classic work Historical Records, it is entirely possible and should be possible for modern people to revise relevant entries in dictionaries such as Ci Hai. If we still treat the Tao Te Ching as Laozi today, it would be a big joke! It is extremely irresponsible for social science research. Therefore, we must not let this mistake, which has been followed for more than two thousand years, continue to affect our ideological understanding and scientific research. Lao Zi, a silk book from Mawangdui Han Tomb, has been unearthed for more than 30 years, and the Tao Te Ching, which has been beautiful for more than 2,000 years, should also be withdrawn. This mystery, which has been wronged for more than two thousand years, is time to wash the snow. Laozi is a masterpiece of materialism, which embodies that morality and existence precede consciousness. To be sure, with the development and in-depth study of Laozi, Laozi's thoughts and philosophical theories will surely make outstanding contributions to the great cause of building a harmonious human society in the history of Chinese civilization and even the history of world civilization.