Tao is unique. The Tao itself contains yin and yang, which intersect to form a balanced state, in which everything is produced. Everything is yin and yang, and yin and yang interact to form a new harmonious body. What people hate most are "loneliness", "widowhood" and "no valley", but princes use these words to call themselves. Therefore, if everything decreases, it will increase; If it increases, it will decrease. I was taught this way, and I will teach others this way. Violent people have nowhere to die. I take this sentence as the purpose of teaching. ?
This chapter is a brief description of the whole process of Tao giving birth to everything, so it occupies a very important position in the whole Tao Te Ching. However, the discussion in this chapter is too brief, which makes it difficult to grasp the concepts of "one, two, three, yin and yang, qi". So let's analyze these important concepts first.
The concept of "one" is the "one" mentioned in Chapter 14. In Chapter 25 and Chapter 39, we made a detailed comparison between the concepts of "Tao" and "One".
Tao gives birth to "being or not" (there is a one-to-one relationship between "being or not" and Tao), and "being or not" gives birth to a beautiful state of mind (the next one gives birth to a beautiful state of mind). A good mood gives birth to inclusive and just thinking, and inclusive and just thinking gives birth to everything in the world.
This can be achieved in real life. Tao drives the change of "being or not", and people have a good mood in the process of being hungry, awake, moving and breathing. On the premise of being in a good mood, people's thinking is inclusive and fair. This has been verified in real life.
Concepts "two" and "three".
We think that "two" is the sky and "three" is the earth. This is understood in combination with Chapter 25, "People everywhere, the land follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature". This sentence implies a process: Tao gives birth to heaven, nature, nature gives birth to everything, and nature gives birth to people. Specifically: the reason why heaven wants to imitate Tao is because Tao is alive all day; The earth takes the sky as an example, because it was born the earth; People imitate the earth because the earth produced people. Because man is a part of everything, further expanding the concept means that everything has been successfully created. So "two" refers to the sky and "three" refers to the earth.
The concepts of "Yin" and "Yang".
Yin is the yin of the earth and Yang is the yang of the sky. This should be analyzed from the first paragraph. Because the previous paragraph completed the process of Tao giving birth to all things, the "yin" and "yang" mentioned later must be the attributes of the previous concept, and they cannot be brand-new things that have not yet been born. However, we searched through the entire Tao Te Ching, and we couldn't find any other discussion about Yin and Yang. Therefore, the "Yin and Yang" in this chapter must be related to "Tao, One, Two and Three". In addition, Tao Te Ching is the inheritance and development of the concept of heaven, and Laozi did not explicitly put forward such a specific concept as "Chang Yin Yang Chang", so the concept of "Yin and Yang" here should be inherited from the concept of Yin and Yang in Zhouyi. Yin in Zhouyi represents the earth and Yang represents the sky, so we speculate that "Yin" and "Yang" here represent the yin of the earth and the yang of the sky respectively.
The concept of "Qi".
"Qi" first appeared in Chapter 10, "Specializing in Qi and Softening". It can be seen that the function of qi is to make people physically and mentally weak. Because "everything is born as one", "Qi" must be related to "one". We know that "One" contains a pure substance such as Jing, which has been promised by Tao, so "Qi" may be the energy given to "One" by Tao. So qi should be the essence of qi, that is, the essence of energy. With this energy, everything can survive, and with this energy, the sky can be clear.
Another important aspect of this chapter is that from the process of creation of all things, Laozi suddenly leads to the "profit and loss view" of "things are either damaged or benefited, or benefits are damaged".
The concept of "profit and loss" is the core of Shen Tao's article, and its basic viewpoint is that "things either benefit from damage or benefit from damage". In other words, sometimes you want to help a person, but you hurt this person; Sometimes you hurt this person, but you help this person.
Therefore, thinking must be alive, don't have a fixed mindset, and don't admit death. There is no such thing as "Changde" as "knowing his male and guarding his female", "knowing his white and guarding his black" and "knowing his glory and guarding his shame". This is because he didn't embrace the "one" and let the "essence of one" run away, and Yin and Yang lost harmony.
short story
A young man went to the temple to apply for a visa. He burned incense very devoutly, bowed to the Buddha and drew lots. An old monk stood by.
Suddenly, the young man shouted happily, "Thank you, Buddha!" " He got up and bowed deeply to the old monk: "Master, can you explain this sign for me in detail?" I know, this is the last sign! How does it lead me to success? "
For a long time, the old monk said, "What are you doing now?" The young man rubbed his nose shyly and said, "I have always lived here and there." The old monk asked again, "So, what kind of success do you pursue?" The young man said excitedly, "I want to do business from scratch and do something big like Li Ka-shing and Bill Gates." The old monk asked, "What if it doesn't work?" The young man said, "I used to want to join the insurance industry, starting as an insurance salesman and gradually becoming the president ..." The old monk smiled, "You are very ambitious, but what if this doesn't work?" The young man thought for a moment: "To tell the truth, I originally wanted to be a writer, write one or two books, sell well all over the world, and try to win Nobel Prize in Literature."
The old monk nodded and asked, "What did you mean when you said you had no fixed place to live and ran around?" The young man said, "Because I have been unemployed several times in recent years, I have to travel frequently to find a job." The old monk asked, "Can you make a living?" The young man rubbed his nose in shame. "Alas … but I can get help from my family and friends from time to time." The old monk smiled with tolerance: "I have no intention to oppose the pursuit of success by the world, but survival precedes success and is greater than success-the Buddha is not trying to help a person who has not even solved his basic survival to pursue success out of thin air."
Look at Shen Tao's articles, even the Classic of Virtue. Lao Tzu is teaching us not to admit the principle of death. That's why Laozi said that "the strong beam will not die" is his teaching purpose in Virtue Classic, which is to warn people to be truly Ming Dow, enter the Tao, master the Tao, hold the "One" tightly and "walk the world with an image".
Hold "one", Tianmen opens, and is connected with Tao, thus fully activating people's whole body senses, and people will not have a fixed mindset and will not admit death. This is the theme of the whole Shen Tao article.