On Mencius and Mozi

(about 468-376 BC) A thinker, scholar and founder of Mohism in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period. The surname is inexplicable Zhai, a native of Lu, and he talked about Song people. Born in Shu Ren, Mozi claimed to be "a servant of the North" (Lv Chunqiu loves classes), "a man in cloth" (Lv Chunqiu Zhi Bo) and "a bitch" (an old story in Zhu Gong). Wang Chong of the Han Dynasty even said, "Confucius is a fool and Qiu Zhai is a saint." (Lun Heng Ji Zi) used to be a doctor in the Song Dynasty, boasting that "the upper class has nothing to do, and the lower class has no difficulty in farming" (Mozi Guiyi), and he is a scholar who sympathizes with the "people of peasants and workers". After studying under Shijiao, he inherited the method of clearing the temple. He also studied Confucianism, the art of Confucius, praised Yao, obeyed Dayu, and knew poetry, books and spring and autumn. Dissatisfied with Confucian rites and music, he abandoned Zhou Dao and used Xia Zheng. Advocating universal love, mutual non-aggression, Shang Xian and Shang Tong, frugality, burial, non-happiness, ambition, ghosts and fate, taking universal love as the core, frugality and Shang Xian as the fulcrum. He is a man who "corrects himself with rope and ink, but is anxious to prepare for the world" (Zhuangzi Tianxia). In order to publicize his ideas, Mozi accepted many students and followed hundreds of disciples, forming a huge Mohist school. Mozi said that "princes" and "walkers" were almost "obedient" (Mozi Meng Gong). "Zhuangzi Tianxia" praised: "Mozi is really the best in the world! I'll ask, but I can't. Although I am very embarrassed, I am a talent! " Where are the tracks? East to Qi, west to Zheng and Wei, south to Chu and Yue. He argued with the public transport class and successfully stopped Chu's war of aggression against Song. Mozi is knowledgeable, skilled and well-made. He once made a "wooden kite" and couldn't fly for three days and nights. He was also good at guarding the city, and later learned to sum up his experience as 21 guarding the city. He also made some achievements in the theory of Ming Debate and became one of the founders of Ming Debate in the Warring States Period. Mozi's deeds can be found in Xunzi, Han Feizi, Zhuangzi, Lu Chunqiu, Huai Nanzi and other books, and his thoughts are mainly preserved in mohists after Mozi.

Zhuangzi (about 369 BC-286 BC), born in the eastern suburb of Mengcheng County (now Dongcheng Road, Chengguan Town), was a famous thinker and writer during the Warring States Period. Zhuangzi wrote more than 100,000 words in his life, entitled "Zhuangzi". The appearance of this document indicates that in the Warring States period, China's philosophical thinking and literary language have developed to non-; Deep level is a treasure in China's ancient books. Therefore, Zhuangzi is not only a famous thinker in the history of China philosophy, but also an outstanding writer in the history of China literature. No matter in philosophy or literary language, he had a far-reaching and great influence on China thinkers and writers, and played a very important role in China's ideological official and literary history. Zhuangzi worked as a small official in Mengcheng Lacquer Garden (now the former site of Lacquer Garden on the north bank of the Wohe River in Shangjun County), but he resigned soon. He lives in a humble alley and writes books. When life was hard to maintain, I borrowed food from Hou Jianhe. Chu Weiwang heard that Zhuang Zhou of China was a learned and moral man, so he sent messengers to the Lacquer Garden (Mengcheng) to prepare gifts for his daughter, and asked Zhuangzi to be the prime minister of Chu. After the emissary made it clear that the king of Chu thought that the phase was the will, Zhuangzi smiled and said to the envoy of Chu, "A thousand dollars is a heavy gift, and the phase is the highest. However, didn't you see the cows during the sacrifice? People fattened the cows and wore red clothes when they sacrificed. Didn't they take them to the ancestral temple and kill them as sacrifices? I would rather live in indifference than sacrifice cows. " Zhuangzi "talks like an ox" in a joke, and never became the prime minister of Chu. In the early years of the Warring States, the princes and soldiers met with each other, with frequent wars and social unrest. In this social background, academic thoughts are unprecedentedly active, and academic schools compete with each other, forming his unique philosophy system and thought bank, which are only a hundred miles apart, so it is also called "the study of Laozi and Zhuangzi". In his later years, Zhuangzi often fished in Pushui (now Qiuhe River in the south of the city) and swirling water, swam in Haoliang (now southwest of Linhuai City in Fengyang, Anhui Province) and enjoyed a quiet and leisurely life with the fish and birds. In the first year of Tianbao of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (742), Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty issued a biography, giving Zhuangzi the title of "South China True Man" and calling his book "South China True Classic". There are also some scholars who have studied Zhuangzi in past dynasties, and there are hundreds of works.

Laozi (about 600 BC-500 BC) was a thinker and founder of Taoism in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Lao Dan, whose real name is Li Minger, whose name is Bo Yang, is from Qurenli, Li Xiang, Guxian County (now Taiqing Palace Town, Luyidong, Henan Province, and Guqiao City, Bozhou). He was a "historian in charge of books" 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. Whether Laozi was written by Laozi has always been controversial. Laozi used Tao to explain the evolution of all things in the universe, thinking that "Tao gives birth to one, two, two, three and three things" and "Tao" is "the fate of a husband is natural", so "man should be in the earth, the earth should be in the sky, the sky should be in the Tao, and the Tao should be natural". "Tao" is an objective natural law, and at the same time it has the eternal significance of "being independent and unchanging, walking without danger" The book Laozi contains many simple dialectical views, such as that everything has two sides, and the "movement of Tao" can be transformed from opposition, "the right is strange, the good is evil" and "the disaster is a blessing, and the disaster is hidden". He also believes that everything in the world is the unity of "being" and "nothing", and "being and nothing" are the foundation, and "everything in the world is born of something and born of nothing". "The way of heaven, the loss is more than enough, but the way of man is not, and the loss is not enough"; "People's hunger is as much as food tax"; "People die lightly, but they live on it"; "People are not afraid of death. Why are you afraid of death?" . His theory has a far-reaching influence on the development of China's philosophy, and its contents are mainly found in Laozi. His philosophical thoughts and the Taoist school he founded not only made important contributions to the development of China's ancient ideology and culture, but also had a far-reaching impact on the development of China's ideology and culture for more than two thousand years.

Note: Laozi was also called Tao Te Ching and Tao Te Ching, which were later titles. At first, Laozi's book was called Laozi, and there was no name of Tao Te Ching.