a true word is not beautiful(xìn yán bù měi)

a true word is not beautiful

"Good words are good words, good words are good words. Those who are good do not argue, and those who argue are not good. He who knows not knows, he who knows not. " From the perspective of human cognition, these three sentences put forward the contradictory relationship between faith and beauty, goodness and argument, knowledge and erudition. They are the criteria for the good and the sage (the person with the most perfect personality) to speak, study and seek knowledge.

brief introduction

Idiom: faithfulness and beauty; pronunciation: X ì NY á Nb ù m ě I

interpretation

Letter: true. Beauty: wonderful, beautiful. True words are not beautiful because they are not processed. source: Chapter 81 of Tao Te Ching: "faith speaks beauty, beauty speaks faith." often followed by "good words and good faith".

source

"Xin Hua Mei" comes from chapter 81 of Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. Tao Te Jing, also known as Tao Te Zhen Jing, Lao Zi, five thousand words and five thousand articles of Lao Zi, is a work of ancient Chinese pre Qin scholars before their separation, which was admired by all the scholars at that time. It is said that it was written by Lao Zi (i.e. Li Er, from Luyi, Henan Province) in the spring and Autumn period, which is an important source of Taoist philosophy. Daodejing is divided into two parts: the first chapter is "Dejing" and the second chapter is "Daojing", which is not divided into chapters. Later, it is changed to "Daojing", with 37 chapters in the front and 38 chapters followed by "Dejing", which is divided into 81 chapters. It is the first complete philosophical work in Chinese history. Daodejing was regarded as a Taoist classic from 206 B.C. to 200 A.D., so some scholars think that Daodejing is divided into 81 chapters, which has obvious Taoist idea of "nine to one", and it is far fetched in the division of content. However, the first thirty-seven chapters of Tao Te Ching preach and the last forty-four chapters talk about morality. In short, Tao is the body and morality is the use. In the Qing Dynasty, Wei Yuan broke this Convention for the first time and divided Tao Te Ching into 68 chapters, maintaining the integrity of each chapter.

content

Chapter 81: "the way of saints, for and not fight." Here Laozi distinguishes "Wei" from "Buzheng". In connection with the above, "Wei" refers to "sages have no accumulation, both think of people" and "with people". "Thinking of others" means doing everything for others, and "dealing with others" means selflessly giving everything to others. It is in this sense that saints are "indisputable". It should be said that "for" contains the meaning of "struggle", including fighting against heaven, earth and people. But this kind of "struggle" of saints is for selfless dedication to others, especially the people. So what he "does not dispute" is his personal fame and wealth. To sum up, Lao Tzu's "indisputable" in addition to preventing and opposing worldly sages from contending for fame and position in Chapter 3 and "indisputable for the way of heaven" in Chapter 73, all means that in the face of fame and wealth, we should be modest, carry forward our style, not compete with others for fame and wealth, not compete with the people for profit, on the contrary, we should also selflessly dedicate ourselves to others, especially the people.

history

Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" has more than 5000 words. Today, it seems that the whole text is philosophy, dialectics everywhere, language is like poetry, and rhetoric of words is very exquisite. There are not only profound logic, but also simple metaphors, a large number of straightforward maxims, but also many memorable witticisms. Before I read this chapter carefully, I thought that Laozi would never end "Tao Te Ching" with general words and plain sentences.

detailed information

"Good words are good words, good words are good words. Those who are good do not argue, and those who argue are not good. He who knows not knows, he who knows not. " From the perspective of human cognition, these three sentences put forward the contradictory relationship between faith and beauty, goodness and argument, knowledge and erudition. They are the criteria for the good and the sage (the person with the most perfect personality) to speak, study and seek knowledge. "Faithfulness" is honest and credible. "Beautiful words" are ostentatious and deliberately embellished words. This sentence is a further interpretation of the sentence "good words and good faith" in the chapter of "good as water". It means that honest and credible words are not gorgeous on the surface, and honest and credible words do not need to pursue the superficial beauty. The words of the best man are simple and honest. The "good person" (some versions are "good speech") can be understood as the person who is good at speaking as well as the person who is good at speaking. "Argument" means excuse or sophistry. The speech of a good person is honest and trustworthy, so there is no need to explain. As far as the person who says sophistry is concerned, he is not a good person or a person who is not good at speech. "Knower" can be understood as a person with profound knowledge and skills. "Bo" means extensive. That is to say, a person with insight is not a person with extensive knowledge, and a person with extensive knowledge will not have insight. "Sages do not accumulate. They think that the more people they have, the more they have with them." "Ji" means accumulation and accumulation. "For" and "and" are the meaning of help and give, understand these three words will understand this sentence. The sage does not accumulate, he does his best to help others, and he will feel fuller. He gives everything to others, but he is richer. "The way of heaven is to benefit but not harm. The way of man is to strive for and not fight for. " "The way of heaven" is the law of nature, "the way of man" is the law of the world. "Benefit but not harm" is beneficial but harmless, and "do not fight for" is to give but not fight for.

explain

The first three sentences of this chapter can be said to be the norms of human behavior in understanding things. Lao Tzu dialectically discusses the norms of human speech, learning and knowledge in the field of speech and learning. The first sentence "faithfulness, beauty and faithfulness" is an indisputable truth in 2500 years. It warns people not to pursue flashy and beautiful words in daily life, whether oral or written, but to use simple, natural and fluent words that can fully express their original meaning. For the ostentatious and beautiful words and words, we should recognize the original intention and purpose of the pure speaker, and not be misled by the beautiful words. "The good does not argue, the debater is not good" is an extension of the previous sentence. There is no need to explain why a good person's speech is simple and unadorned, and his speech must be true. And those who are good at arguing, because they want to cover up the untrue original intention, so they have to use beautiful and pretentious words to explain. Their original intention is to deceive and is not good. Nowadays, some exaggerated advertisements want to cover up their false functions and services, and use beautiful words and beautiful pictures to cover up the false truth. They are all deceiving and are not good at all. They are the realistic portrayal of good words and bad debaters. It is the opposite relationship between knowledge and erudition, and it is still the motto of true knowledge. With the progress of society and the development of science, the division of labor in society is becoming more and more detailed, the branches of disciplines are becoming more and more, and the frontier of knowledge is becoming more and more refined and deepened. The era of only seeking erudition to invent and innovate has passed. Only with more profound knowledge can we adapt to the development of society, science and culture, and truly master the knowledge and expertise that are useful to society. This is the practical significance of "those who know but do not know". But the opposition between any things is not absolute, and they can not be absolute. We should fully understand the opposition between faith and beauty, goodness and argument, knowledge and erudition proposed by Lao Tzu, but we must not completely oppose them, because there is no absolute opposition. In this sentence, there is a big one-sided, we also need to know from the unity of knowledge and erudition. In order to realize that erudition is the basis of knowledge to a certain extent, in addition to profound knowledge research, erudition is also the basis of profound research for those who do profound knowledge. There are many scholars who go from erudition to refinement, first erudition and then refinement. For education, basic education is to ask for erudition but not refinement, while professional education is to give up erudition and strive for refinement. "Sages do not accumulate. They think that the more people they have, the more they have with them." This is a concrete embodiment of the values of the best man throughout the whole Tao Te Ching, and a manifestation of great fraternity. Combined with the song of "good songs" in the dream of Red Mansions, "the world knows that the gods are good, only gold and silver can never forget, only hate to get together in the end, and the eyes are closed for a long time", we should be able to truly understand and establish the great values of the best people. To understand the meaning of the word "Ji" in the text is to do everything possible, that is to say, "Wei" and "Yu" are to do everything possible. the last sentence is "the way of heaven is beneficial but not harmful. The way of man is to strive for and not fight for. " This is the way of heaven to explain humanity, and it is also the code of conduct of "benefit" and "no dispute" of the best people throughout the whole Tao Te Ching. I have already talked about my experience in detail in the article "shangshanruoshui new explanation", so I will not talk about it any more. In the closing sentence of Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu re mentions the propositions of "for", "for profit" and "no dispute", which is a life admonition that the best man should never forget.

relevant

Good words and good words. "Faithfulness" is a faithful and reliable way to lead people into the Tao, which must be based on truth. The words of those who have Tao are simple and simple. His writing style is neither like the emotional poetry nor the eight part essay. But it can't enlighten human nature and save human life. Lao Tzu's style of writing is simple and unsophisticated, and there is no disease of "good words" flattering the world. "Those who are good do not argue, and those who argue are not good.". the "good" here does not refer to the narrow sense of "benevolence and good", but the supreme good of the Tao. The "theory" style of those who have Tao is to seek truth from facts thoroughly, which must be in line with the principle of "simplicity to ease". Its purpose is to combine knowledge with practice, so as to be effective. Therefore, we will not engage in complicated philosophy, nor will we play sophistry concept games to win by confusing people. "Those who know are not knowledgeable, and those who are knowledgeable do not know.". the "knowledge" here refers to the realized truth of the universe and life, which can be called true knowledge. "Bo" is erudite, refers to the book of learning

Chinese PinYin : xìn yán bù měi