sensible
There is a cloud in Zhuang Zhou: "Take heaven as the religion, take morality as the foundation, take Tao as the door, and turn omen into holiness." My definition of a saint is: a person who understands yin and yang, changes and abides by the golden mean.
Ancient books are badly scattered, and it is often not enough to evaluate the author's realm only by fragmentary articles or even words. Therefore, many sages were buried by the dust of history and were not known to future generations.
My reading range is limited. At present, only three sages, Lao Dan, Zhuang Zhou and Hong Yingming, have a large number of credible documents to prove it. The representative works of the three are Taoist classics that I recognize.
Although Zhuang Zhou juxtaposed Guanyin with Lao Dan, the existing Guanyin Zi is hard to distinguish between true and false, which is not enough to see the face of a saint. In addition to Guanyin, there are Yang Zhu and Lieyukou-they are all closely related to Laozi and Zhuangzi, but their words are rarely circulated; Therefore, I don't know whether it is sacred or not.
sensible
There is a cloud in the 40th chapter of Dai Ai Gong Yi:
Aigong said, "Good! Dare to ask: What is a saint? "
Confucius said: "The so-called sage: likes and dislikes sympathize with the people and choose to be unified with the people;" Walking in the middle of the rope doesn't hurt the book; Telling the world the law does not harm its health; It is ordinary people, not princes, who bow to wealth. In this way, it can be described as a saint. "
I define a saint as a person whose moral cultivation is high enough to be imitated by his contemporaries and admired by future generations, but who fails to reach the Tao. (Press: The moral cultivation of sages can be based on Confucius, and anyone whose realm is obviously different from Confucius is not a saint. )
Stupidly, the so-called Confucian sages (such as Yao, Shun, Yu, Duke of Zhou, Mencius, etc.) are actually sages; The world-recognized great Confucians (such as Dong Zhongshu, Zhu, Wang Yangming and Gu) and those who have received The True Biography of Confucius (such as Yan Hui, Zeng Shen, etc.) are also sages. Besides Confucianism, Mo Zhai, Bird Slip, Song Shuo, Yin Wen, Meng Peng, Tian Pian and Shen Dao listed in Zhuangzi Tianxia are all sages. If Yang Zhu and Lieyukou fail to get the word, they are sages. In addition, Han Fei and Yan Ying are also sages.
The ancient books are scattered seriously, and many sages are forgotten in history because of the lack of documents. In addition, due to my ignorance, some sages (especially those outside Confucianism) are not included.
In short, sages are rare.