Yin Wen

Yin Wen

Yin Wen (360-280 B.C.), a native of Qi, was honored as "Yin Wenzi". He was a famous philosopher in the Warring States period.

Yin Wen is as famous as song Chuan and belongs to Jixia school. It is the forerunner of song Yin school in the Warring States period. Yin Wen, who lived in Jixia during the reign of King Xuan of Qi, was a representative of Jixia school. At the same time as song Chuan, Peng Meng and Tian Pian, he was a famous scholar at that time.

Life

Governing the world

According to Yin Wen's theory, Chuang Tzu's Tianxia chapter says that it is "not tired of vulgarity, not decorated with things, not harsh on people, not harsh on the public. May the peace of the world live a long life, and the cultivation of people and themselves end". The central idea of his theory is to hope that the world will be peaceful, the society will be peaceful, the people will live and work in peace and contentment, and a well-off world will be achieved. Everyone can support himself in society, and at the same time, they can support others. That's enough. There should be enough. There should not be too much desire and imagination, so as to achieve the goal of "no shame at all" and "no disgrace at all" You have to be yourself. This is the principle of governing the world.

Tolerant thought

Yin Wen's thought is similar to song Chuan's, advocating tolerance, that is, the so-called "forgiveness", teaching people not to fight, advocating that they should be tolerant of other people's attitude and even insults, and that they should not be angry because of small losses and big losses; they should oppose war, turn fighting into friendship, and advocate tolerance as the top priority. He believes that "the great way is tolerant of the masses, and the great virtue is tolerant of the lower". To the people and the subjects, as long as we pay attention to the morality of forgiveness and tolerance, and regard it as the most noble thing, things will be easy to do. The fewer things are, the easier it is to handle. The simpler the procedures are, the more you can find out the causes and consequences and grasp the key points. A person who is a monarch must "govern by inaction" so that he can "accommodate the world" and "accommodate the world" can win the support of the people. The best way to "tolerate the world" is to "see the bullying deeply but not fight". Under this principle, we should reward those who have made contributions and punish those who have not made contributions. Only in this way can we judge the situation and match the name with the reality. This is the truth of "using the Tao means inaction and autonomy".

govern by doing nothing that goes against nature

Yin Wen believes that in order to achieve "self-government through inaction", the name and the reality match each other, we must adhere to the eight principles of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, music, name, law, punishment and reward". These eight are all the "tactics of governing the world" of the "five emperors and three kings". Therefore, for the benevolence of "giving generously to things" and "using Tao", for the "righteousness" and "fitting", for the "courtesy" and "doing respectfully", for the "joy" and "harmony" of "harmonizing emotions", for the "name" and "name" of "righting, respecting and humbling", and for the "law" and "law" of "harmonizing all differences", we should take "harmonizing" For the punishment of "using power" to serve, "using power"; for the reward of "persuading loyalty" and "persuading it". Moreover, he believes that the eight standards ("eight skills") are "not hidden from people, but always exist in the world". If we all master them, we can achieve the great rule of the world. This is what Lao Tzu called "rule the world by doing nothing". Thus, we can achieve the ideal state of "rule the world by doing nothing".

Yin Wen's so-called "forgiveness" is consistent with Confucius's "don't do to others what you don't want to do to yourself". However, it highlights the idea of "name and reality", that is, the so-called "see the humiliation without fighting" and "judge the name and reality". According to Yin Wen, "the road is invisible, and the utensils are famous.". Yin Wen's "name" is "shape", which makes the name match the reality. Yin Wen said: "if the form is right by the name, then the name can not be bad", and they interact and complement each other. He quoted Confucius as saying: "therefore, Zhong Ni said:" it is necessary to rectify the name! The name is not regular and the words are not smooth In this way, his thought of "autonomy without action" is not only connected with "forgiveness", but also with the thought of "name and reality". These philosophical propositions can be found in Confucianism. Yin Wen also quoted Lao Tzu as saying: "Tao is the property of all things, the treasure of good people, and the treasure of bad people. It is the rule of Tao, which is called good people. Those who are born in the name, law, Confucianism and Mohism are called bad people. " He believes that "good people and bad people, reputation away." This points out the difference between the two. He believes that "the visible must be famous", and conversely, "the famous may not be visible". Therefore, the things that are reasonable and not conducive to the governance of the country are "said by the gentleman"; the things that can be done are not beneficial to the governance, such things are "done by the gentleman". He asked people to do things to see whether it is beneficial to the country and the people, so as to match the "name" and "reality". Otherwise, there will be "chaos". Therefore, "if the Tao is not enough to cure, it will be used; if the law is not enough, it will be used; if the technique is not enough, it will be used; if the power is not enough, it will be used." Only in this way can we achieve "the use of power is against power, the use of power is against skill, the use of skill is against law, the use of law is against Tao, and the use of Tao is against inaction and autonomy." To achieve the purpose of serving the world.

In ethics, Yin Wen not only tolerated others with "forgiveness" and achieved "no fighting at the sight of humiliation"; but also opposed the war with the "forgiveness" thought of "tolerance of the public with great virtue" and advocated "tolerance of the world through inaction", which is not only interlinked with Confucianism, but more importantly with Laozi's "advocating softness" spirit of "governing by inaction".

School

There are several views on Yin Wen's School of thought

（1） Chuang Tzu · the world takes song Chuan and Yin Wen as a family, "not tired of the customs, not decorated in things, not harsh on people, not in the public. May the peace of the world end by living the people's lives, and the support of people. The ancient Daoism lies in the people who are right. Song and Yin Wen are happy to hear about it. "

（2） GUI Yinwen is a famous scholar. There was no "Mingjia" appellation in the pre Qin period. The appellation of "Mingjia" first appeared in Sima Qian's preface to Taishigong: "Mingjia makes people thrifty, but is good at losing, but it is necessary to observe the name and the reality", "Mingjia scrutinizes jiaorao, so that people can't go against its meaning, but only depends on the name, but loses human feelings, so it is called" Mingjia makes people thrifty and good at losing ". If you control the name and responsibility, you can't fail to join the army. You have to observe it. " Because of this, Ban Gu classified the compilation of Hanshu Yiwenzhi as Yin Wenzi, but it did not mean that Yin Wen was a famous scholar, or that Yin Wen, Huishi and Gongsunlong were the same family. "The separation of Hanshu Yiwenzhi was not based on that person's fundamental theory, but on the main points of the content of the works handed down at that time" (see yinwenhe, Tang Yue, Volume 6 of ancient history differentiation).

（3） Yin Wen is close to Taoism. "Zhou's pen" said: "Liu Xiang said that he learned from Zhuang Lao.". "Rong Zhai Xu Bi" quoted Liu Xin's language, and also said that "Yin Wenzi" was the Italian version of "Lao Zi".

（4） In this village, the name is root and the method is handle. Ma duanlin's "general textual research of literature" volume 2-12 "textual research of classics" subclass famous scholar "Yin Wenzi" quoted "Zhou's pen" as saying: "Liu Xiang said that he was Zhuang Lao. The book begins with the Tao and then the name, and then the name and then the Dharma, with the name as the root and the dharma as the handle. " Chen Li of the Qing Dynasty also thought that Yin Wen was a famous scholar and a legalist.

（5） They belong to other families. Gao Yu sun's Zi Lue: "Ban Gu's Yi Wen Zhi is a famous writer, and Yin Wen Zi is recorded.". In his book, he talked about the road, fame, benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, and the balance of magic. In general, he learned from Lao and applied to Han However, their learning is miscellaneous and confusing, and they are not pure Taoists. " The fourteenth volume of Hong Mai's Rong Zhai Xu Bi says: "Yin Wenzi has only five thousand words, and the discussion is not a pure version of Huang Laozi He savored his words in detail and entered into universal love Because of the confusion of Yin Wenzi's content, Si Ku Quan Shu is listed as a miscellaneous school.

Yin Wen studied in the famous Jixia Academy. Jixia Academy is a political academic group created by the rulers in the Warring States period. It is different from the general university, but with the nature of Research Institute, similar to today's Academy of social sciences. Because it was set up under the Jimen gate in Linzi, the capital of Qi, it was called "Jixia school" and "Jixia school Palace". Jixia Academy is a famous position of a hundred schools of thought in ancient China. According to the classification in Ban Gu's Hanshu Yiwenzhi, there are Confucianists in Jixia, represented by Mencius, Xunzi, Gongsun Gu and Lu Zhonglian; Taoists, represented by Huanyuan, tianpian, qianlou and Jiezi; yinyangists, represented by ZouYan and luqiuzi; Legalists, represented by Shendao; and celebrities, represented by Yinwen.

thought

Essence theory

Yin Wenming did put forward the theory of essence.

1. "Tao" is "Qi", and the essence and subtle part of "Qi" is "Qi". Lao Tzu has the idea that "Tao" is "Qi". He once proposed that "Tao is a thing, only vagueness, only trance Among them, there is essence, which is very true. Among them, there is the viewpoint of "faithfulness" (Chapter 21). There is something subtle in the Tao, which is real and effective, and contains the germination of the theory of essence. Song Chuan and Yin Wen often mentioned "Tao" and "Qi" together, and said: "the essence is also the essence of Qi."

2. Jing Qi is the origin of all things in the universe. Song Chuan and Yin Wen inherited Laozi's view that "Tao" is the unity of "the greatest" and "the smallest". They believed that "once Jing Qi comes and goes, it has no interior, it has no exterior" (neiye), which is the origin of all things in the universe. Everything, small to indivisible, large to no edge, contains essence. The essence "produces five grains below and stars above" (neiye), which constitutes all things in the universe.

3. Essence constitutes human body and produces life and wisdom. Essence is the material of human body, but it mainly endows human body with life and wisdom.

Song Yin school

Yin Wen's thoughts were Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, and widely accepted the theories of various schools, which was the academic style of Huang Lao in Jixia. Because the source and content of his thought are closely related to song Chuan, later generations call him "Song Yin school" together with song Chuan.

Chinese PinYin : Yin Wen