Laozi
The founder of Taoism. Li was born in Guxian County (present-day East) in the Spring and Autumn Period, and his name was Bo Yang (Taishiyun). The date of birth and death is unknown, which is around the same time as Kong Qiu. I am a small official in charge of books in the Zhou Dynasty. Legend has it that Kong Qiu once asked him. Laozi has been handed down for 5,000 words (there are different versions, more than 5,000 words and less than 5,000 words), which was formed in the Warring States period and preserved Laozi's thoughts.
Laozi preached an idealistic world outlook and a retrogressive view of social history, and totally denied the value of cultural education. The main argument about educational thought in Laozi is:
Theory of cultural degradation. Laozi takes Tao as the noumenon. "Tao" is synonymous with "nothing" and is a spiritual entity born in nature, without any stipulation. As a universal law of all things in the universe, "Tao" means "inaction", that is, conforming to nature. The antonym of "inaction" is "promising", that is, artificial creation. Laozi believes that the culture created by human beings, including all manifestations of morality, law and wisdom, deviates from "Tao", and the emergence and development of culture is a sign of the degeneration of human society. He said: "The avenue is abandoned and meaningful; Wisdom comes out with great fallacies; Six parents are incompatible and have filial piety; The country is in chaos and there are loyal ministers. " (Chapter 18) "So, when you lose your virtue, you lose your virtue, and then your benevolence; When you lose your benevolence, then your righteousness, you lose your righteousness, and then your ceremony. Rude people are loyal and chaotic first. " (Chapter 38) "There are many thieves in the law." (Chapter 57) That is to say, in the world of "Avenue", people naturally live in harmony, and they don't need moral constraints, and they don't know what morality is. It was not until the law of "inaction" was destroyed that saints and wise men came out to formulate moral norms, impart knowledge and educate, so there was the concept of right and wrong, good and evil, and the phenomenon of fame and fortune followed. Morality is not enough to restrain and make laws, which leads to more disputes and more confusion. Laozi thinks that this is the track of the degeneration of human society. The task of education is to impart culture, because it is regarded as a tool to promote the fall of mankind.
On the return of human nature. Laozi deduced from the nothingness of Tao that human nature is "ignorance without desire" and pure selflessness, and thought that changing from "ignorance without desire" to "knowledge with desire" was a betrayal of human nature, that is, from "selflessness" to selfishness, and education accelerated this betrayal trend. So Lao Tzu put forward the "return" of human nature as the ideal of saving society, fantasizing that people would return to innocence and be indifferent to everything. He thinks: In this way, if there is no action, there will be no dispute, and everyone will be satisfied by "willing to eat, willing to be beautiful, willing to be safe and willing to enjoy customs" (Chapter 80).
On "Abandoning the Sage of Wisdom" Lao Zi believes that the way to "return" human nature is to "abandon wisdom" (Chapter 19), that is, destroy culture and cancel education. Laozi said that "for learning" and "for Tao" are opposite directions, "for learning is increasing, for Tao is losing in the day". It means "for learning" is the pursuit of knowledge, which requires knowing more things and learning more skills. "Being the Tao" means returning to "ignorance and no desire", which requires forgetting what you know, discarding the skills you have learned, and forgetting them thoroughly, "losing them again, so that you can do nothing" (Chapter 48). Laozi thinks ignorance is omniscient and knowing is wrong. He said: "The knower doesn't speak, and the speaker doesn't know" (Chapter 56); "A good man does not argue, but a bad debater" (Chapter 8 1). The knowledge of truth, goodness and beauty cannot be explained in words, and anything explained in words is harmful to the knowledge of truth, goodness and beauty. So he thinks that education will only lead people to mistakes. He fundamentally denied the role of education, so he advocated "Juexue" (Chapter 20). If he is also in favor of some kind of education, it is "teaching without words" (Chapter II). He said: "teaching without words is the benefit of inaction, and the world is hopeful." (Chapter 43) Leave everything as it is. This is the best education.
Laozi advocates the elimination of culture and education, and his class tendency is obvious. He said: "The good in ancient times are not wise to the people, but will be foolish to the people. The reason why people are difficult to treat is because of wisdom. Therefore, governing the country with wisdom is a thief of the country; It is the blessing of the country not to govern the country with wisdom. " (Chapter 65) As a failed spokesman of the slave-owning class, Lao Tzu believes that people dare to rebel because they are more intelligent, and the effective way of ruling is to implement the policy of ignorance.
Zhuangzi (about 369 BC-286 BC)
Zhou Ming was born in Song Guomeng (now the northeast of Shangqiu County, Henan Province) during the Warring States Period. I used to be a painter in Monty. It is generally believed that there are thirty-three Zhuangzi, seven of which were written by Zhuangzi. There are fifteen foreign articles and eleven miscellaneous articles, which are mixed with the works of his master and Taoism.
Zi inherited Laozi's thought of "Taoism is natural", denied the value of cultural education, and said that "abandoning wisdom is the only way to stop thieves" (Zhuangzi? He advocated that "no one can kill Yao" ("Autumn Water"), that is, don't use manpower to change nature. He compared raising horses, saying: Horses are born with hoofs that can trample on frost and snow, and hairs that can keep out the cold. It eats grass and drinks water, jumps and runs with its tail up and enjoys itself. This is the nature of horses. After Bole, who was good at raising horses, came out, he cut his hoofs and sheared his hair, injured his head and stumbled, gave the horse a title before, and then urged the horse to die of hunger and thirst, and galloped away, so most of the horses were tortured to death. He wants to explain the essence that benevolence, righteousness, rites and music can only harm people. Zhuangzi also condemned the society at that time with a cynical mood: "Those who steal hooks are punished, those who steal the country are princes, and the door of princes is benevolent." (“Gui”)。 He believes that "benevolence and righteousness" is used to punish ordinary people, but it is only a tool for the powerful to deceive the world and steal fame. He takes "real people" as his ideal in life. The so-called "real people" means "don't donate the Tao with your heart, don't help the sky with people" (great master), forget benevolence and righteousness, forget rites and music, forget the objective world, forget yourself, and thus gain the freedom of surreal spirit. However, Zhuangzi also felt that the reality was inescapable. Not only does the son love his relatives, but the minister "has nowhere to escape between heaven and earth", that is, "life and death, life and death, wealth and dignity, honor and disgrace, good and evil, hunger and thirst for cold and heat" and so on. So he reluctantly advocated "killing life for no reason" (Autumn Water), and regarded the attitude of "keeping pace with the times", "not blaming right and wrong" and "drifting with the flow" as the extreme of "virtue".
Generally speaking, the negative and decadent outlook on life of nihilism and obscurantism runs through the cultural and educational thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi School. On the other hand, it sharply exposed the hypocrisy of the ruling class morality and expressed the hope of personal freedom in the form of fantasy, which also had certain positive significance at that time.
1973 Four kinds of lost articles, such as Daoyuan, Ten Classics, Weighing and Classic, were unearthed from No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, and were written after the mid-Warring States Period, reflecting the thoughts of Huang Laodao. The author of Lost Books inherited the theory of Laozi and absorbed the thoughts of Confucianism, France and celebrities. What they get from "inaction" and "selflessness" is not to destroy culture, but to respect knowledge. For example, they say, "If you want to know the gains and losses, you must judge the name and punish" (Ten Classics). "There is a distinction between right and wrong, which should be tried by law" (classic law). Because they respect knowledge, they value the role of "scholars". They said: "those who gain a word are also scholars;" The words that benefit the country are also the national scholars. ..... If the princes know it, the country will be fortunate "(The Ten Classics). "The king of the world, light country and heavy, old country and heavy security; Cheap money is expensive and knowledgeable, so work is earned and money is born "(Jingfa). Therefore, when discussing national policies, we also advocate "Ming De", "Xing Xian" and "civil and military parallel". This development and change of Taoist thought is to adapt to the historical trend of creating feudal unity and to make public opinion preparations for promoting learning and being excellent and being an official.