Chapter 28 of Tao Te Ching

Chapter 28 of Tao Te Ching

Original text:

It is a world trend to know his man and keep his woman.

For the world stream, Changde never gives up and returns to the baby.

Knowing its white and keeping its black is the world wind. ? ,

For the world, Changde is not special and returns to infinity.

Knowing its glory and keeping its shame is Amagai.

For Amagai, Changde is enough, returning to the park.

Park San is a vessel. If a saint uses it, he will be an official. So the big system is not tangent.

Translation:

Not only has exuberant vitality, but also has a peaceful mind. I don't want to be turbulent, I want to be a gurgling stream in the world.

As pure and transparent as a stream, it gradually returns to the true nature of the baby in the constant purification of the soul.

Knowing your innocence, but insisting on your dark taste, can become the paradigm of this world.

Become a model of the world, and eternal virtue will not go wrong and return to the beginning of the universe again.

I know my own glory, but I am willing to remain humble and shameful. I am willing to be the valley of the world.

Be willing to be the valley of the world, the eternal virtue is enough, and return to simplicity.

If you turn it into a natural avenue, saints can rely on it to become leaders. Therefore, a perfect ruling system cannot be divided reluctantly. ?

In the last chapter, Lao Tzu told us to go with nature. In this chapter, he also told us that we should retreat to gain our own stability. It is also required that "saints" should also take this as the principle of governing the country and the people. The thought of guarding and humiliating women is naturally not understood as shrinking or escaping, but contains domination, not only guarding women, but also knowing men. This tells us to face the scene of social chaos and struggle in the most appropriate and suitable position. It turns out that keeping a low profile is a great wisdom. In today's "awesome", we really should observe the world and us calmly and objectively. Lao Tzu seems to have told us something.

Everything has its cycle. If you make progress, you will retreat. Success means failure. Therefore, in addition to knowing how to plan ahead, we must also improvise. Pulling back from the cliff and repairing the hole in the middle of the river is certainly a remedy for the crisis, but it is a dilemma after all; It's hard to ride a tiger, and it's too late to regret it.

When everything goes well, people tend to forget the truth that "extremes meet". They either rush in if they can't see clearly, or they don't know how to get out at the right time. They have to push themselves into trouble, ride a tiger, and then regret it. Do things with a clear head, don't covet fame and fortune, and don't do things that are unprepared; Doing things is for success. It is not advisable to be aggressive or hesitant. Knowing how to advance and retreat, relaxing and being prepared for danger in times of peace are the way to do things.

Of course, in order to successfully adopt the strategy of "retreat for progress, hide one's strength and bide one's time", we must have certain backing and grasp the discretion. "Don't fight an unprepared battle", I'm not sure in my heart. Using this scheme easily is bound to be self-defeating. Everything must be planned, there must be advances and retreats, and the rhythm of controlling the situation should be grasped at any time. This is the guiding significance of Laozi's wisdom to today.

Another topic, Lao Zi's black or white theory not only has a great influence on China's philosophy, but also China's whole literature and art is inextricably linked with it. China's poems, paintings and calligraphy, on the one hand, emphasize "learning from nature", on the other hand, advocate "creating nature", and attach great importance to the construction of images and artistic conception.

Take calligraphy as an example: with Chinese characters as the carrier, the points of the glyph are skillfully combined in horizontal, vertical, left and right directions to form expressive artistic modeling, and a beautiful and meaningful aesthetic artistic conception of calligraphy art is created by using the method of black and white density ratio. ?

Deng, a famous painter and seal engraver in Qing Dynasty, said that "white is black". Of course, calligraphy theory's "leaving white space for black" is literally related to Laozi's theory of "leaving black space to know white space", but it is not a direct copy of the latter. However, we have to admit that China's theory of "black and white" in calligraphy undoubtedly benefited from the simple dialectics of Laozi's theory of "Tao".

"Reality coexists with reality, and all places without painting are beautiful" is not only the path for us to think about art, but also one of the important paths for us to think about society and life.

? 20 19-8- 14