This includes Laozi's dialectical thinking and admiration for the state of nature, and attributed the highest state of everything to nature rather than man-made. This passage is full of words and wisdom, shining with the light of philosophy.
White is the purest color, but if it is too white, a little stain will stand out, but it can't help being humiliated, so there is a saying that "white is a shame". Lin Daiyu in A Dream of Red Mansions is beautiful, pure and blue, but she is easily defiled, and it is difficult to ban the wind and rain damage on earth. This kind of white should only exist in heaven, not as good as secular dust.
The square was originally angular, but it was so big that it was close to a circle that the edges and corners disappeared, so it was called "generous without corners". This is just like our earth, which is high mountains and deep valleys, but we are a ball as a whole, because it is too big to see the edges and corners.
Morally speaking, the real Fang Zhengzhi people are not sharp people with horns on their heads and thorns on their bodies, but a generous family with a round inside and a round outside, too big to see its horns and too wide to touch its horns. Therefore, people who are really generous look very smooth. People who have both principles and flexibility are real talents.
Equipment is for users. Small equipment is small, big equipment is useful, big equipment is difficult to shape, and often seems useless. However, the use of equipment is unlimited, so "the big equipment is late." Before Jiang Ziya was hired by Zhou Wenwang, he couldn't do anything, even the basic problems of life could not be solved, and it was useless to be scolded by his wife. But Jiang Ziya is a great musical instrument, and its use is not in trivial matters, but in governing the country.
So although he is over 70 years old, he still fishes in Weishui. After that, I finally caught it, helped the Zhou family to complete the land reform, and became the founding hero of the Zhou Dynasty and the ancestor of Qi State. It was really a late bloomer.
Music is a kind of sound, and the most beautiful sound belongs to nature, which is integrated with the sounds of nature, without the noise of human voices. Therefore, beautiful music called "Great Sound and Happy Sound" flows between the strings, such as mountains and rivers, and is completely integrated with nature, which makes people feel relaxed and happy. They don't think it's deliberately playing, but it's the same as the sound made by nature.
That kind of noisy music is just noise, polluting people's eardrums, and a gentleman can't stop his ears. The loud voice is pleasant, and there is no noise at all, so it looks sparse.
Phenomenon is the reflection of the existence and movement of things, which are regular, and the biggest phenomenon becomes the law of the existence and movement of things, that is, its essence can be understood through phenomena. Law is invisible, through which we can predict the phenomenon of things.
Abstracting a concrete phenomenon into a law is an elephant, but the elephant is invisible in abstraction, so it is called "elephant invisible". From the common phenomenon, we can see the invisible truth hidden behind, that is, "elephant."
"Tao" is an objective law, and the objective law is a natural law. Only the natural law is the avenue. Only the avenue, "the people don't know the daily necessities." People use it unconsciously every day, thinking that it is naturally not enough to be called "Tao", and those who are naturally not enough to be called "Tao" are actually "avenues".
The real avenue is hidden in the most natural people's daily life, instead of marking its name, explaining its reasons and forcing people to follow it. This is what Lao Tzu said: "Tao can be Tao, but it is not constant;" The name can be named, not a constant name. " The usual way is the avenue, hidden and nameless, so it is said that "the way is hidden and nameless."
summary
Tao Te Ching mainly discusses "Tao" and "morality": "Tao" is not only the natural way of the universe, but also the method of personal practice. "Virtue" is not the usual morality or virtue, but a monk's special world outlook, methodology and way of dealing with people.
Laozi's original intention was to teach people how to practice Buddhism. Morality is the foundation, and Taoism is the sublimation of morality. Without the foundation of virtue, you are likely to fail in dealing with people, managing your family and governing the country, and you will not be able to "cultivate Buddhism."
Therefore, cultivating "virtue" is to create a good external environment for monasticism, which may also be needed by people; Being a monk requires a quiet mind and a detached life, which is also indispensable for virtue. The moral part of Tao Te Ching accounts for a large part of the Confucian classics, which is the basis of monasticism.
"Tao" is the overall simplicity, and "Wan Qi Gate" and "Tao" have produced all things and are included in all things. "Tao" is in things, and things are in "Tao". Everything comes to the same goal by different routes, and it leads to the Tao.
Tao is not only a tangible substance, a thoughtful spirit, a rational law, but also an invisible and intangible cosmic source, which leads to all this. Material, spirit and law are all derivatives of Tao.
Tao is inherently infinite. Tao is the ancestor of nature, the source of all things in the universe and the foundation of all things in the universe.