What are the similarities and differences between Taoist Laozi's thought and Zhuangzi's thought?

During the pre-Qin period, the rise of hundred schools of thought Qi was called a hundred schools of thought contending. Taoism is one of the most important schools of thought. The core of Taoism is "Tao", which emphasizes that heaven is natural and inaction, and humanity conforms to heaven. Reflected in politics and law is the idea of "governing by doing nothing". The origin of Taoist thought is very early. It is said that Emperor Xuanyuan had the idea of harmony between man and nature. At that time, Lao Tzu went to the west and wrote a letter to the ancient customs, which was written in 5 thousand words, and then became the Tao Te Ching, covering his whole life's thoughts. He is recognized as the founder of Taoist school. Zhuangzi is another representative of Taoism. Some scholars think that Zhuangzi developed and distorted Laozi's Tao [1]. The author thinks that Zhuangzi actually expounded the different meanings of Tao from different angles. Its emphasis is different from Laozi's. When it comes to Taoism, everyone is called Lao Zi and Zhuangzi. It can be seen that Laozi and Zhuangzi are important in Taoism. From Confucius to Mencius, Confucianism developed along the road of internal transcendence, but Taoism did not. Taoism is a school of thought from different levels and directions. Lao Zi and Zhuangzi are both Taoists, and both believe that "Tao" is the origin of the world. They advocate natural law, oppose artificial law, and put forward the idea of "inaction" politically. But I didn't accept an apprentice. Zhuangzi developed his thoughts and found another way. Therefore, Laozi and Zhuangzi discussed Tao from different angles and expounded inaction from different levels. Through the analysis of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts, this paper expounds the differences between Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts.

The first chapter is the difference of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's understanding of Tao.

To talk about Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts, we must first talk about Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophical thoughts. Thoughts are interlinked, and philosophical thoughts and legal thoughts are interlinked. Taoist philosophy is different from Confucianism's philosophy of entering the WTO, but directly cuts into the principle of the operation of heaven and develops the Taoist philosophy centered on heaven. The core of Taoism is Tao. Both Lao Zi and Zhuangzi followed this "Tao". However, the "Tao" they refer to is not exactly the same.

In Laozi's view, "Tao" is the highest category of his philosophical system. "Tao" is the subject of all things in the world, which has the significance of generative theory and of course has transcendence. What is Tao? Lao Tzu said in the fourteenth chapter of Tao Te Ching: "If you don't see your name, you will say that you are a foreigner;" When you listen, you will say hope; It's not called micro when you fight. These three things cannot be blamed, so they are confused. " The "Yi", "Xi" and "Wei" here are all beyond the Tao. Tao is "invisible", "there is an image without an image", "you can't see its head when you meet it, and you can't see its back when you meet it" [2]. Only by keeping the road of the past can we resist the present. Knowing the past is the Tao, and summarizing this highly abstract thing as Taoism. Tao has no specific rules, but because of this, it can become the basis of all concrete objects. What's the use of Tao? Laozi said in the twenty-fifth chapter of Tao Te Ching: "Things are born in harmony. Lonely, independent without change, week without danger, can be the mother of the world. I don't know its name, the word is. " Chapter 36 says: "The Tao gives birth to one, two, three and everything." [3] Lao Tzu believes that Tao came into being before heaven and earth, and everything in the world was created by Tao, which is the mother of all things. Therefore, Laozi's props are of vital and transcendental significance.

For Zhuangzi's Tao, his focus is no longer on its generative significance, but on its universality. In his philosophical thoughts, "Tao" is more of a universal existence, which is ubiquitous in the world. "Zhuangzi's Journey to the North" said: "Dongguozi asked Zhuangzi,' Is the so-called Tao evil?' Zhuangzi said,' Everywhere'. Dongguozi said,' Let's talk about it later.' Zhuangzi said, "In the ant", "in the tile" and "in the urine" ... [4] Zhuangzi thinks that Tao is everywhere, boundless and embodied in everything. Finally, Zhuangzi concluded: "If the Tao is supreme, it is also a big talk. Surrounded by three salty people, different names are the same, all with the same meaning. "Zhuangzi's unique understanding of Tao can be seen from the words" Zhou ","Bian "and" Xian ". He greatly lowered the status of Tao, pulled it from the height of cosmogenesis to people's hearts, and regarded it as the ultimate value goal of life cultivation. The process of man's pursuit of Tao is the process of man's inner perfection. Once a person reaches the realm of "enlightenment", he also reaches "no self [5]".

The second chapter is the difference of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's dialectical thought.

Taoism occupies an important position in the history of China's philosophy. There is no lack of the essence of dialectical thinking in Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts. Laozi pointed out in the second chapter of Tao Te Ching: "Everyone in the world knows that beauty is beauty, and evil is self-defeating; As we all know, goodness is good, but it is not good. Therefore, it is difficult to complement each other. Compared with the length, the height is oblique, and the sound and sound are in harmony. " In this chapter, I start from the identity of contradictions. I think beauty is beautiful because of ugliness and good because of evil. Without it, there is nothing, no difficulty, no easy, no long, no short, no high, no low, no sound, no front and back. The contradictory things in the world are interdependent, and dialectical thinking shines here. Then Laozi said in Chapter 34: "The actions of Tao are actions against the weak. Everything in the world is born in existence and born in nothing. " Laozi mainly expounded that the development and change of things is a gradual process, and we can't do things for quick success and instant benefit. The development and change of everything in the world will eventually come to nothing, and nothing will come back to life, and nothing will go on and on, even endlessly. Any objective existence in the world is reasonable. Therefore, Lao Tzu believes that to solve the contradictions in the world, we should not adopt the strategy of suppressing contradictions on the one hand and supporting contradictions on the other, but adopt the strategy of letting nature take its course, that is, the strategy of doing nothing. Therefore, he warned the rulers to "teach without doing anything, teach without saying anything, do without doing anything, do without doing anything, do without relying on it, and achieve success for it [6]", arguing that "without Shang Xian, the people will not dispute; Expensive and rare goods, so that people do not steal; If you can't see what you want, you won't be chaotic. " However, in the process of development and change of things, Lao Tzu only emphasized the role of internal factors and excluded the role of external factors. He believes that if there is no counterpart of contradiction, then contradiction will not exist, so he put forward in the eighteenth chapter of Tao Te Ching: "The avenue is abandoned and benevolent; Wisdom comes out with great fallacies; Six parents are not harmonious and have filial piety; In osawa, there are loyal ministers. Desperate, the people are filial; Abandoning wisdom, people benefit a hundred times; Never give up profits, thieves have nothing. " Laozi believes that governing the country should abandon the so-called "benevolence, righteousness and propriety". It is precisely because of these artificial regulations that society cannot develop naturally according to the original laws, which violates the development law of Tao. Therefore, the country and society are in a chaotic situation of war, and people cannot live and work in peace and contentment. Lao Tzu thinks that the above is not general enough and profound enough, so he clearly puts forward his argument that rulers should be "simple, selfish and have little desire [7]"

There is a saying that you can't study China's philosophy without reading Zhuangzi. Professor Xie pointed out that the interweaving of dialectics and relativism is an important feature of Zhuangzi [8]. Dialectics is a contradiction in the nature of the research object itself. Zhuangzi adopted the method of exposing the contradiction to the object of his study, which is in line with dialectics. Zhuangzi not only inherited Laozi's dialectical thought, but also made some development and breakthrough. First of all, Zhuangzi admitted that everything in the world is constantly changing and developing. Zhuangzi wrote in "The Theory of All Things": "Once it is finalized, it will not die. Disagreement with the blade of phase is not sad, just escape! Zhuangzi believes that the process of life is in an unstoppable rapid change, such as the galloping of a fine horse, and no force can stop it. People's life is always in a sharp struggle with nature. "Being enemies with nature" and "lifelong service" are the true descriptions of this persistent struggle. Under the class status and social background of Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi can see the complicated changes and sharp struggles in his life, which is the reason why Zhuangzi has a clear head and some dialectical thoughts. In the article "Autumn Water", "The year can't be lifted, but when it is deep, it will have a beginning, so it is the side of semantics and the principle of everything. The birth of things is the same, if it is sudden, it will not change, and it will not change with time. What is this? Why not? The husband will be self-sufficient. " Zhuangzi's "everything" here refers to the objective material world. Zhuangzi very clearly affirmed the change of "everything", which is "if it moves suddenly, it will remain unchanged, and if it does not move, it will remain unchanged". Zhuangzi not only thinks that things are changing and moving, but also thinks that this kind of changing and moving is absolute. It shows a very clear and firm dialectical view here.

Second, the relativism of Zhuangzi's epistemology. Relativism is a metaphysical and idealistic philosophy. Its main feature is that it exaggerates the relativity of the essence of things, obliterates its definite stipulation and cancels the boundaries between things, thus fundamentally denying the objective existence of things. In epistemology, relativism exaggerates the relativity of people's understanding, completely separates the relative from the absolute, denies the absolute in the relative, and denies the objective standard of right and wrong. Relativism is the cognitive basis of sophistry. Because it regards everything as relative, subjective and arbitrary, and cancels the objective standard of truth and falsehood, it opens the door for reversing black and white and confusing right and wrong, and becomes the most suitable tool for sophistry. Zhuangzi wrote in "Autumn Water": "In Taoist view, nothing is noble; Seeing things is expensive and cheap; From a vulgar point of view, nobility is gone. From the perspective of difference, because it is big and big, everything is not big; Everything is small because it is small. Knowing that the heavens and the earth are meters and the details are hills, it is almost invisible. From the point of view of merit, if there is something, then everything is there; Because without it, there is nothing, without it, there is nothing. If you know the opposite of things and can't have each other, then there is a division of work. Look at it with interest, because it is natural, then everything is nothing else; Because it is not what it is, everything is wrong. " Everything has its big side and small side. From a big perspective, everything is big; From a small point of view, everything is small; In the same way, it can be said that everything is there, nothing, nothing, nothing. I understand that the world is as small as a grain of rice, and a hair is as big as a hill. Then the difference and quantity of everything can be seen clearly. Knowing that everything, like the East and the West, is antagonistic and inseparable, then we can determine the functions and responsibilities of things. From the comparison between heaven and earth and rice grains, millie and Qiushan, Zhuangzi shows that the size, dignity and right and wrong of all things are relative, not fixed, and are constantly transforming each other. Then it is further pointed out that from the point of view of Tao, there is no distinction between size, dignity and right and wrong, and everything is the same.

Zhuangzi believes that both objective things and people's inner world are dominated by Tao. Therefore, everything is relative, and it is right or wrong in understanding. Fundamentally speaking, everything is the "materialization" phenomenon of Tao. For example, Zhuang Zhou's dream is a butterfly, and the butterfly's dream is Zhuang Zhou's. This is just an illusion and there is no certainty. Therefore, we should give up all opposition and all arguments, be ignorant and return to the nihilistic "Tao", and everything will be unified. Although Zhuangzi wrote in "The Theory of Everything", "One is out of right, and the other is because of right. He has a wise judgment on the theory of winning, but he knows nothing about the changing conditions of reality and is subjectively divorced from reality. Combining the intention of getting rid of contradictions and pursuing "true slaughter", Zhuangzi immediately wrote: "Although, only death can lead to death; The party cannot, the party cannot; Cause is cause, cause is not cause. So saints can't help but shine in the sky, and it's also because of it. [9] "This" saint "can't help but write a" saint "like Zhuangzi, who is dazzled by these changes and can't understand it, so he has to use" heaven "to make it clear. Naturally, there is no way to examine the conditions of these changes, so we come to the conclusion that "yes is another and that is the same". Since the contradiction between "being" and "being" has been completely eliminated, the situation of "one finger in heaven and earth" and "everything is a horse" has been achieved.

The third chapter is the foothold of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thought.

Regarding the position of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thought, Teacher Luo Anxian said in his book "Virtual Quiet and Happy": "The focus of Laozi's thought is still social chaos. Laozi looked at people from the perspective of society, from the perspective of controlling social chaos, and highlighted human nature, thus emphasizing' modesty'. The starting point of Zhuangzi's argument is individual people. Although Zhuangzi affirmed human nature, Zhuangzi respected and emphasized human freedom. [10] "The starting point and end result of Laozi's thought is the people in the society, and he is concerned about the stability and prosperity of the country and the people's living and working in peace and contentment. For example, Lao Tzu pointed out in the third chapter of Tao Te Ching: "It is the rule of saints, the deficiency of the heart and the reality of the abdomen; Weaken his will and strengthen his bones. It often makes people ignorant and have no desire, so that the virtuous dare not do it. If you do nothing, you will die. " The ultimate focus of this chapter is to warn the king how to govern the world. Laozi lived in the Spring and Autumn Period, where princes stood side by side, filled with smoke, and wise men ran among princes, adding fuel to the flames of social disasters. Laozi suggested that if we want to get rid of the scourge of war, we must be foolish without desire, and use foolish strategies to "weaken our will and strengthen our bones", so that the country will be firm. The thought of "inaction" is the most important legal thought of Laozi. He called on the rulers to "govern by doing nothing". He said: "I am inaction and the people are self-motivated. I am quiet and the people are self-righteous. I have nothing to do and the people are rich. I have no desire and the people are simple. " Laozi believes that a politician should "govern by doing nothing", manage without interference, have a monarch without oppression, and let the people develop themselves, so that the people can be peaceful and rich, and the society can naturally be harmonious and stable. Laozi regards "inaction" as a means for saints to "take the world" and "govern the world".

Zhuangzi is concerned with human freedom and spiritual freedom. Zhuangzi was born in the declining slave owners' nobility, and once worked as a painter. I will retire soon. Zhuangzi believes that freedom is the ideal state of dealing with people. In order to achieve this state, we must be indifferent to things, that is, get rid of the opposition and dependence with the surrounding things; The key to "inequality" is "no self", that is, to eliminate the contradictory party. For example, Zhuangzi wrote in "Happy Travel": "Fu Liezi goes against the wind, Ling Ran is kind, and there will be five days after ten days. The blessed don't count. Although this is off-line, there are still things to do. It is evil for a husband to resist the debate of six qi with the meaning of heaven and earth and swim endlessly. Therefore, as the saying goes, "man has no self-nature, god and man are useless, and saints are nameless." Liezi can exercise by the wind, but the wind is also a thing, and Liezi still "does something", that is, relying on the wind is not absolute freedom. If we can conform to the natural laws of heaven and earth and master the changes of the universe, we can reach the realm of absolute freedom. Zhuangzi believes that the infinity of the universe can only be understood with an infinite heart. To be an infinite traveler, one must be selfless, reactive and nameless.

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Laozi and Zhuangzi are both representatives of Taoist school. Laozi founded Taoism, and Zhuangzi developed Taoism. The core of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thought is Tao, which belongs to idealism in philosophy and emphasizes inaction in politics and law. Zhuangzi's thoughts originated from Laozi, but they are different from Laozi. This is inseparable from their social background and personal experience. It is because of this difference that Lao Zi and Zhuangzi shine brilliantly in the history of China's law, philosophy and thought.

[1] Yang Chen's Philosophy of Zhuangzi, Journal of Social Sciences of Colleges and Universities, No.4. Page 69

[2] Chen Guying's Notes on Laozi, published by Zhonghua Book Company. Page 1 14

[3] Chen Guying's Notes on Laozi, published by Zhonghua Book Company. Page 163

[4] Cao Chu machine "Zhuangzi Note", published by Zhonghua Book Company. Page 333

[5] Cao Chu machine "Zhuangzi Note", published by Zhonghua Book Company. Page 7

[6] Chen Zhu De Jing, published by Jilin Literature and History Publishing House. Page 3

[7] Chen Guying's Notes on Laozi, published by Zhonghua Book Company. Page 136

[8] Xie Zhu Zhuang Zhou of Relativism and Dialectics, Journal of Social Sciences of Colleges and Universities, No.4.. Page 48

[9] Cao Chu machine "Zhuangzi Note", published by Zhonghua Book Company. Page 22 -3 1

[10] Luo Anxian's Xu Jing Xiao Yao, People's Publishing House. Page 53

Source: China Legal Culture Network