Preface to Lu Chunqiu (Preface)

Let us open such a great book together.

This is the "Lv Chunqiu" left to us by Lv Buwei, a politician and "Shang Sheng". It was written by 3,000 diners gathered by Lv Buwei, covering Confucianism, Mohism, France, Taoism, military, agriculture and fame, and integrating the strengths of many schools. Today, it has gone through more than two thousand years.

I spent nearly two years reading it, and no matter which article I read, I will get enlightening understanding from it. In the process of continuous research and interpretation of Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals, a General Interpretation of Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals was written. At the same time, I also created 20 illustrations based on the text content of Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals and my own research results, which more intuitively showed the information that could not be displayed by words alone, and included them in this book. Among these 20 pictures, some are based on the relevant information on the Internet, some are made by the author according to the relevant information of the Capital Museum, and some may have been lost, which is purely the product of the author's imagination. I hope it will help or inspire everyone's reading.

Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals was written at the end of the Warring States Period, also known as Lu Lan. It belongs to essays and is an important classic in the pre-Qin period. It was written in 239 BC (that is, the eighth year of Qin Shihuang). It was just before Qin unified the six countries, only 19 years before Qin Shihuang unified the six countries (22 BC1). The compilation of Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals embodies the political requirements, ideological mobilization and theoretical preparation before reunification, and is the product of conforming to the historical trend.

Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals takes the cultural thoughts of Yi-ology, Yin and Yang, Five Elements and Ganzhi as the general outline, and integrates the strengths of many schools, forming a theoretical system including politics, economy, philosophy, morality, military affairs and agriculture, affirming and advocating the idea of "following the heaven, observing the tunnel and understanding human feelings", and at the same time advocating the active use of factors such as weather, geographical location and human harmony. In the Spring and Autumn Annals, Lu said that time, place and people are harmonious, which is actually what we now call objective laws, or natural laws. This is the same as the first "Tao" in Tao Te Ching, that is, "Tao can be Tao, but extraordinary". Everything is constantly changing, and this "Tao", that is, the law of nature, is the only thing that has not changed since everything came into being. Only those who can adapt to or take the initiative to use this natural law can prosper; Those who can't conform to or make use of this natural law will decline and perish.

Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals also put forward the idea of "rumors must be investigated" and the way of keeping fit, which has materialistic factors. At the same time, many ancient rumors are preserved in the book, which has high theoretical and historical reference value. In addition, there are some superstitious ideas in the book, which should be distinguished. Sima Qian juxtaposed Lv Lan with Zhouyi, Chunqiu and Lisao in Historical Records, which shows that he attached great importance to Lv Chunqiu. Gao You of the Eastern Han Dynasty also commented on it, saying that this book is "out of the power of philosophers", that is, it surpasses the achievements of philosophers. Ban Gu's Han Shu Literature and Art Annals listed this book as a work of saints, so later Confucian scholars paid little attention to it.

It can be said that the ideological expression and theoretical explanation of Lv Chunqiu was only a part of political ideal at that time. Although his intentions are extremely secretive, they are by no means unknowable. Why do you say that? For example, there is a saying in "You Shi Lan Ying Tong": "Those who take the place of fire must save water, and heaven and water prevail first. Water vapor wins, so its color is still black, and its business is water. " Readers who understand the theory of five elements know that the water in the five elements corresponds to black, while Qin takes water as virtue and wears black clothes and armor. Since the previous part of this sentence mentioned that the Zhou Dynasty was a fire virtue, it is logical that water and fire and Qin replaced Zhou Tian to unify the world. In our current words, it is "God gave me the king's life, and I can't help it." "What does it have to do with me?" It can be seen that "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" is indeed seeking a theoretical basis for its own military conquest, and between the lines, it shows the ambition of sweeping the four seas, sweeping Liuhe and annexing the world. This great politician obviously knows that some things can't be solved by the iron horse. As Sun Tzu's Art of War said, attacking the city is the bottom and attacking the heart is the top. Therefore, only by successfully influencing the hearts of scholar-officials is the key to creating achievements. This obscure expression also fully embodies his shrewdness and scheming as a politician, "schemer" and a monk. From this perspective, a word is worth a thousand dollars. After all, Qin relied on its golden horse, took advantage of the overall weakness of the six literati, and finally won the world. Although this is not the original intention of "in a word", who can know what Lv Buwei thought at the beginning?

Of course, as a politician, "schemer" and businessman, Lv Buwei did not get rid of the fate of being forced to withdraw from the historical stage. However, if we think about it carefully, quitting is not only the fate of Lv Buwei, but also the fate of many of us. For this reason, we don't need to dwell on the arrangement and choice of fate, but focus on the realization of a beautiful ideal. Let us remember one little thing when we quit.

Lv Buwei's plot for us today, don't worry about him. What we should value most is that he has provided us with many wise ideas and opinions. The value of Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals itself lies in this-it is a philosophy of wrangling-it lifted all the literati at that time. Why do you say that? For example, some people say that benevolence and righteousness are infinitely beautiful. He tells us with practical examples that the implementation of benevolence and righteousness regardless of objects may lead to the demise of the country; Some people think that war is fierce and bloody, so he gives us an example to tell us that tyranny itself is more harmful than war, and sometimes it is necessary to exchange bitter war for better peace; When someone is obsessed with fame and fortune in the world, he gives examples to tell us that in history, many famous ministers have appeared because of this.

"Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" is not to subvert people's traditional pursuit of beauty, but to help us optimize and sort out the imperfect parts of our world outlook and outlook on life, so that when we pursue success, we should not only pay attention to the aura of success, but also clearly see the hidden responsibilities and traps behind success, so that we can keep a trace of awe in our hearts when we pursue things outside. However, his methodology requires us to study constantly and diligently, so as to improve our personal cultivation, have a wise eye and analyze specific problems when looking at problems, instead of simply and blindly judging the quality of things. When dealing with problems, we should adjust measures to local conditions, properly handle the relationship between subjective behavior and objective environment, and effectively use the constraints between various factors, that is, the time and place mentioned in Lv Chunqiu.

The nutrients provided by this book are by no means limited to righteousness. It is divided into twelve chapters, eight readings and six theories, * * * 26 volumes, 160 articles, about 200,000 words. Chapter 12 focuses on weather, chapter 8 focuses on personnel and chapter 6 focuses on geography. The book respects the idea of "adapting to the weather and human harmony", but abandons the negative elements. Knowledge covers many aspects, such as Yi-ology, Yin-Yang and Five Elements, health care, military science, politics, temperament, astrology, agricultural production, meteorology, nature, history, geography, technology, machinery and so on. All of these have detailed phonetic notation, annotation and translation in this book, with annotations, hoping to help you better understand and learn.

The notes in the book are as close as possible to our own reading rules. For example, readers may find that some entries will appear repeatedly in several different chapters, which is not caused by omission, but because the author forgot some entries when reading the relevant contents of Lv Chunqiu and marked the forgotten places, so he repeatedly marked them in collating. Based on the idea of putting yourself in others' shoes, the author thinks that the problems that appear in his reading process are likely to appear among readers and friends. Therefore, the repetition of annotations aims to avoid the ambiguity or forgetting of some individual words from affecting readers' overall grasp of the book. At the same time, I also believe that it is because everything is comparable and can be compared with others that it is possible for me to ponder Lv Buwei's thoughts for more than two thousand years.

The author has a strong interest in hundred schools of thought's works in the pre-Qin period. Reading these works not only helps to appreciate the ideas and wisdom in them, but also plays a very important role in my translation and annotation of Lv Chunqiu.

The author admires this book and thinks it is the inevitable result of the collision and development of various ideas. It justifiably refuted the pedantic thought of Confucianism and Mohism, which was called outstanding learning at that time, but never refused to absorb its excellent components. Its most shining place lies in revealing the idea that "truth can only be obtained by obeying objective laws". Although the works of various schools have distinct ideological contents, they are also biased. Because of prejudice, all ideas are not worth relying on alone. For example, Confucianism advocates benevolence and righteousness, but we know that benevolence and righteousness are impossible and cannot be widely applied to everyone. Even Uncle Lei Feng knows that "people should be as warm as spring, and enemies should be as cruel as autumn wind sweeping leaves". So Confucius is sometimes worse than Uncle Lei Feng. Confucius is famous, I think because he is a coordinate point in history. However, when looking at the issue of benevolence and righteousness, Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals thinks that it is much more mature than pedantic Confucianism to analyze specific situations and treat specific problems.

Nevertheless, I still hope that after reading this book, readers will be able to read a large number of works (but not limited to this), so as to have a general understanding and grasp of the whole process of pre-Qin philosophy from simple to complex and from naive to mature, and experience the impact of various ideas in their minds during this reading process. As the ancients said, learning to be excellent is an official. After studying for three generations, a saint was born. It can be seen how important it is to persist in and widely draw nutrition from various books. For example, there is an entry about "group" in the chapter "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: Visiting You". Although I have read more than 30 pre-Qin works and read through Historical Records and Zi Zhi Tong Jian, I still can't find any records about "Qun". I only know roughly that "Tuan" is used to tie armor. It was not until I read Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica and found a record in the section of Compendium of Materia Medica: Kun Department of Grass Department that I realized that the original "Tuan" was made of Kun Department twisted into a rope. A military thing, but it is recorded in the Pharmacopoeia. Who would have thought? And I didn't know until I happened to know. At least a year. It's really fate that reminds me!

Fortunately, I know a little about the five elements, gossip, divination, astrology and temperament. In traditional culture, I have also participated in some agricultural work. In this way, in the book Lv Chunqiu, I can clearly annotate the chapters related to this information, which can better help readers understand the spiritual connotation in the chapters of Lv Chunqiu and Lv Chunqiu.

This book carries out phonetic notation, entry annotation, full-text translation, annotation and illustration on the full text of Lv Chunqiu, with the main purpose of spreading excellent ancient books in a popular way. However, just as the moon is full of ups and downs, there are still three words in the book that have no pronunciation and meaning, which is deeply regrettable. In addition, due to the limited level of the author, there must be some incompleteness, imperfection or incompleteness in the annotation, translation, evaluation and overall grasp of the book. I hope that experts and readers will give constructive corrections.

Here, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Ji Lianhai for personally writing the preface to this book! I would like to pay high tribute to the leaders of Jiangxi People's Publishing House and Mr. Pu Hao's masterpieces, and to all the ancient China book lovers and my family and friends for their help and support!