What is "a piece of red from Liu"?

Logical contradiction and realistic contradiction

Lu Xun once chatted with a friend and said that some diners in ancient times were helping others, but they really had the ability to help others twice, so he gave a poem. Lu Changchun, a Qing Dynasty man, told an interesting story about Jin Nong, one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou", making up for others in Tan Bin Xiang Yin Lou. At the invitation of a salt merchant, Jinnong went to eat in Pingshantang, a famous scenic spot in Yangzhou. During the dinner, it was suggested that everyone should sing an ancient poem about "Feihong" to help drinkers get drunk. When it was the salt merchant's turn, he finally managed to say, "Every piece of Liu is red." . Catkin is obviously white, but "patches of white come from Liu". How can you say "patches of red"? A burst of laughter made him too embarrassed to step down. At this time, Jin Nong was very wronged by the salt merchants. He said the poem was really well written and published! Everyone will be skeptical and ask for the source. Jin Nong got up and said, "This is a poem about Pingshan Hall sung by Yuan people, and it is well quoted." Then he spat leisurely at the lotus:

Twenty-four bridges, twenty-four winds and railings still recall the old Jiangdong.

The setting sun shines on the peach blossom house, and the willow is red.

This poem is about the sunset shining on the Taohuawu on the banks of the 24th Bridge in Yangzhou. Catkins are dancing with the wind, just like sunset glow, covered with colorful patches. What a wonderful scenery! "Every piece of red comes from Liu" was originally unreasonable, but after the diners used the first three sentences to pave the way, it became a touching story. This poem is really well written, but what's the problem? This is purely because he is eager to deal with this situation.

The isolated sentence "Liu is red" contradicts the long-standing judgment that "Liu is white". In the same thinking process, making two opposite judgments about the same thing is called logical contradiction. The logical contradiction in thinking violates the law of contradiction of formal logic, which is a taboo for argumentation and any other way of thinking expression.

The law of contradiction stipulates that in the same thinking process, two mutually negative thoughts cannot be true at the same time. To eliminate logical contradictions, we should try our best to make the two concepts not conflict and deny each other. The first three poems of the public mentioned above changed the environmental conditions of "coming to willow"; In this way, the contradiction between "Liu's white film" under normal circumstances and "Liu's red film" under special circumstances is eliminated, and the two are the same.

There is a joke in Feng Menglong's Overview of Ancient and Modern Tan, which really solves the logical contradiction well. There is a man named Zhang Youyu. A large number of diners come to his house to make a living every day. Once, Zhang Youyu made a riddle and posted it on the door, telling everyone that only those who answered correctly could enter. The riddle is: "old, young, ashamed, ok?" A large group of diners scratched their heads and had to stare and be turned away. A man named Wang came forward and solved the matter. He explained it brilliantly: "Taigong met King Wen in eighty years, but he was not old; Gan Luo twelve as prime minister, small not small; Is it shameful to swallow it alone after closing the door? Will you open the door for everyone to eat? " The four sentences in this riddle are four pairs of contradictory concepts. We can't say that someone is old or not, nor can we say that someone is young or not. Wang said that "the squire meets the king of Wen in eighty miles." Although people are old, their hearts are not old. "Old" and "not old" are two different things, and they can be "combined into one" in one person, which does not constitute a logical contradiction. In the same way, Ganluo is small, but the official position is not small. He turned the third and fourth sentences into rhetorical questions and asked the host, are you ashamed? Is it good or bad to do this like me? Wang's solution made his master laugh.

Lenin once pointed out that "logical contradiction"-of course, under the condition of correct logical thinking-should not exist in economic analysis or political analysis At the same time, he pointed out that there are contradictions between life itself and real life, which are different from logical contradictions. He said, "This is not a narrative contradiction, nor a theoretical contradiction ... This is not a fabricated contradiction, but a living dialectical contradiction." This contradiction is called "realistic contradiction". This contradiction cannot be ruled out by the law of contradiction.

Not at the same time, or not on the same object, on the same hand, two opposite ideas may not constitute a logical contradiction. As the saying goes, "water can carry a boat and overturn it", and "carrying a boat" and "overturning a boat" are contradictory concepts, but under different conditions, water has these two different functions.

As the Russian saying goes, the same person is "the hero in front of the sheep, the sheep in front of the hero". On the surface, there are conflicts, but from different angles, they are all true.

Marx said: "The revolution is dead, long live the revolution!" Now that you are dead, how can you live forever? Marx said that although the revolutionary struggle of French workers has temporarily failed, the revolutionary spirit is eternal. We say that the sabotage and disturbance by reactionaries are both good and bad. This means that under certain conditions, bad things can have good results, not that both bad things and good things exist.

In short, all thoughts that reflect realistic contradictions do not violate the law of contradiction; But the logical contradiction in the narrative process violates the law of contradiction. But in thinking, it is often difficult to distinguish between what is the reflection of realistic contradictions and what is the performance of logical contradictions.

For example, in the history of China's literary criticism, there is a saying that "literature embodies Tao" and there is also a saying that "poetry expresses ambition". On this basis, many people once thought that China's ancient literary criticism could be divided into "Taoism-carrying" school and "ambition-expressing" school.

Qian Zhongshu pointed out in Four Essays on Old Essays that, in fact, in the old tradition of China, "writing carries Tao" and "poetry expresses ambition" only indicate the functions of individual styles, not an overview of "writing". "Wen" refers to prose to distinguish it from "poetry" and "ci". These two things seem to point to each other. In fact, they are like saying "he is going to Beijing" and "she is going back to Shanghai". Qian Zhongshu thinks that the two can also be said to be "two wings complement each other", such as "porridge for breakfast" and "noodles for lunch", and they are not contradictory. Therefore, the same writer can not only write articles to promote such and such truths (that is, "writing to carry Tao"), but also write poems to express feelings and aspirations (that is, "poetry to carry ambition"). That is to say, "writing carries the Tao" and "poetry expresses ambition" do not talk about "writing" in general, they do not talk about the same object and do not constitute a logical contradiction.

Another example is that a certain population is good, and we praise him as "eloquent"; Some people's articles are simple and easy to understand. We say that his articles are "as clear as words". Some people have raised the question whether it is better to "speak by chapters" or "understand by words". Being in the beautiful scenery makes people sigh "picturesque"; Standing in front of a charming scenery, people commented, "If you are in a good place". Which is more commendable, "picturesque" or "near a good place"

In The Mystery of Language, Zhang Yufu believes that to answer the above questions, we must first understand that natural scenery and spoken language are primary, while pictures and written language are secondary; At the same time, we should understand that pictures are artistic reflections of natural scenery, and the written language has also been refined when recording oral English. Therefore, the picture cannot be divorced from the natural scenery, and the written language must be close to the spoken language, which is on the one hand; On the other hand, pictures cannot be simply imitated and must be improved, and the written language cannot be simply recorded and must be processed. Therefore, it is good to "speak in words" or "understand as language"; "picturesque" is good, and "if you are in a good place" is also good. They involve different aspects of the same thing, but in fact they are not contradictory.

The logical contradiction to be excluded by the law of contradiction refers to two mutually negative thoughts on the same object, at the same time and on the same side. Without these "three identities", there would be no logical contradiction.

Anyone who has read the Bible knows that there are words in the Bible that Moses was buried after his death. Can a person describe the funeral scene after his death? As early as the 8th century AD, a scholar listed a series of such "contradictions" in the Bible to show that the Bible was unholy.

It is said that it is not impossible for enlightened people to describe their funeral scenes after death in books. Buddha Sakyamuni predicted that he was going to nirvana three months in advance. The Bodhisattva Mahasa Sutra begins: "If so, I have heard about it. For a time, the Buddha was in the lecture hall of Bishe Jingshe, far away from the country. Tell the monk: I will die in March. " According to records, this prediction has its own generation among China monks.

If a person says, "I agree that people can see things after death" and disagree that people can see things after death. " Then, we should say that he is caught in a contradictory situation.