Laozi and Zhuangzi's respect for nature is reflected in people's social life and daily life, that is, they advocate that people's consumption and enjoyment should echo nature and conform to the law of natural development in order to achieve the balance between man and nature and social ecology.
In Laozi's view, nature is the mother of mankind. Living in nature, human beings should abide by the laws of nature and return to the arms of loving mothers. Only in this way can people live in harmony with nature and create a better world with lush foliage, clear springs and flowers.
Lao Tzu's chapter 32 "The contented are not in danger" means that only by knowing enough is enough can we avoid the crisis caused by audacity. Zhuangzi inherited Laozi's thought and emphasized that enough is enough. The so-called moderation, from the perspective of ecological aesthetics, is the beauty of neutralization, order and balance between man and nature and between man and things to a certain extent. Zhuang Zishengda: "People who know the true meaning of life don't pursue unnecessary things in life, and people who know the true meaning of fate don't pursue unchangeable things. The article "Leather Basket" holds that the natural ecological order is often chaotic because people don't know what to stop. They only pursue what they don't know, but they don't know the nature and law of motion of what they already know. As a result, they disturbed the brilliance of the sun and the moon, exhausted the essence of mountains and rivers, destroyed the alternation of middle seasons, and made moths in the sky and grass on the ground lose their constancy, ecological disorder and the beauty of ecological balance. Therefore, Zhuangzi emphasized that when people use everything in the world, they should know how to abide by the boundaries of nature.
If things are done too much, evil will spread, and if things are forced to succeed, it will bring disaster. It takes a long time for a good thing to be realized naturally, and it is difficult to correct it if it goes against nature and makes a big mistake. Han Yu, a writer in the Tang Dynasty who was later than Zhuangzi, once used a vivid metaphor to say that the universe is like a melon, and people are like parasites inside, until the contents are hollowed out, the rest is a lot of rubbish. In the end, mankind will only die. Connecting with Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's views on sustainable development and moderate growth, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi expounded their simple ecological consumption views of "abstinence" and "advocating frugality" based on individual life value.