Confucius was the first person to put forward the strategy of saving the world. Confucius' strategy to save the world is four words-"self-denial and courtesy", that is, returning to the ritual and music system of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Confucius' plan is to prescribe the right medicine. Since the problem now is the collapse of ritual music, our solution is to restore ritual music.
There is a problem. The ceremony broke down. How can we save it? Confucius said that the key is to find the core idea of the system of rites and music, which is "love". This kind of love is called benevolence in Confucianism. Kindness includes three contents, namely, kissing love, compassion and loyalty and forgiveness. The first kiss of love is a noun, and the second is a verb, meaning to love one's loved ones. First, the love for parents is called filial piety; second, the love for brothers is called filial piety. Filial piety is the core of Confucius' thought. How does filial piety save the world? Confucius put forward two principles. The first principle is sequential extension, that is, moving forward along the bloodline and blood relationship. For example, from the love for parents, the sequential extension leads to the love for grandparents and great-grandparents. The second principle is reciprocal love, that is, sons should be filial to their fathers, and parents should also love their children. This is the so-called "kindness" or "father's kindness and filial piety". The same is true of Ti. We can "make the world full of love" by extending order and loving each other equally, from brothers, cousins, ethnic brothers, fellow villagers, classmates, colleagues and comrades-in-arms, to ethnic minorities and foreigners.
Is Confucius' salvation plan effective? It doesn't work. One of Confucius' students, Zai Yu, came to argue with Confucius and said, Teacher, three years' mourning is too long. Confucius said that less than three years after your parents died, you ate, drank, ate meat and listened to music. Are you feeling better? It's easy to say that it's good. Confucius had no choice but to say, "If you feel better, do it." . So I have always been very skeptical about running the country by virtue. Confucius couldn't even cure his own students. Can he save this country?
Mohist school: saving the world with fraternity
In Mozi's view, Confucius' kindness is problematic. True love is selfless, but it is not true love if it is personal. As parents, everyone can think about their love for their children, because they are reluctant to give them food and use them. No matter how poor you are, you can't be poor and uneducated. Therefore, Mozi put forward that his salvation plan is universal love, that is, equal love. The love for parents, children, villagers and classmates is the same, which is equivalent to western fraternity. So the difference between Confucianism and Mohism is that Confucianism advocates that "loving you is negotiable" and Mohism advocates that "loving you is not negotiable". Only when everyone is equal can the world be peaceful. Mozi said that it is not only love, but also mutual benefit. Mozi said that if you love others, others will love you, and if you help others, others will help you. On the contrary, if you hate others, others will hate you; You hurt others, and others will hurt you. Please calculate for yourself. Is it cost-effective to get love and help from others, or is it cost-effective to get hate and harm from others? In order to get love and help from others, you should love and help others. Everyone helps and loves others, and everyone gets the love and help of others. This society is a beautiful society with win-win, multi-win, mutual benefit and mutual love. This is the first time in the history of China to put forward the concept of win-win, which is very remarkable.
When Mencius arrived, Mozi's students had an argument with Mencius. Mozi's students put forward a question, saying that you Confucianists don't love the people like children. Then I ask you, is there a difference between newborn babies? Mencius said, I know what you mean. For example, a baby crawling on the ground is about to fall into a well, and everyone will go up to save it. No one will ask whose child it is. But this is not fraternity, this is compassion. Everyone has compassion, which is more important than the etiquette of "whether a man or a woman gives or receives a kiss" So, if your sister-in-law falls into the water, you are an animal if you don't pull it. But you can't say I love my sister-in-law just because I helped her. I love my sister-in-law as much as my wife, okay? Therefore, in the view of Confucianism, universal love cannot save the world.
Taoism: I don't like saving the world.
Taoism says that all kindness and fraternity are useless. There is only one way to save the world, and that is not to love. Because the best society does not need love.
Zhuangzi has a little fable. He said that fish can't live on land without water, so fish and fish spit foam at each other to save other fish. This is called "caring for each other". This is certainly good, noble and touching, but Zhuangzi went on to say, "It is better to forget the Jianghu". It is best that these fish are all rivers, lakes and seas, with plenty of water and no need to spit foam. Therefore, the best society does not need assistance, and the best management and leadership are invisible. Lao Tzu said that the best leader is that everyone knows that there is a leader, but he never watches or cares about things, which is very good. This is called "knowing above and knowing below". The second kind of mutual praise is called "praise from relatives". The third is mutual fear. Leaders dare not meet the masses at all, and the masses dare not meet the leaders. This is called "fear". The fourth category is mutual abuse, where leaders gnash their teeth and the masses whisper to each other, which is called "insult".
Taoism advocates the so-called "governing by doing nothing". Laozi said, "Its politics are boring and its people are pure." If the leaders are confused, the people will be simple and kind and will not care. On the contrary, * * * is observant, and the people below are fighting with you, saying that "its political supervision is lacking and its people are lacking." Anyway, there are policies above and countermeasures below. How to save the world? Taoism believes that saving is saving, because this society has been torn down. Zhuangzi said that it is good for the Yellow Emperor to rule the world, because the Yellow Emperor's rule of the world unites people's hearts and makes them simple and not bad. When it comes to Emperor Yao, something goes wrong. Emperor Yao's idea of ruling the world is to make everyone love him. What's wrong with love? Because there is love, there is hate, and there is intimacy. If you are particularly close to some people, you will be particularly alienated from some people, and there will be barriers, differences and grades between people. In the era of shun, it was not good again, and the competition mechanism was introduced. In the past, there was a gap between people at best, but now it has become a competitor and derailed. The result was out of control. At last, when Dayu ruled the world, people's hearts had completely deteriorated, and they fought reasonably and legally. From competition to war, the world was in chaos. What happened in the end? Confucianism also ran out, Mohist also ran out, shaking his mouth and making irresponsible remarks, confusing people. Obviously, the bad thing is that you want to rule the world. Where there are rules, there are chaos. If there is no chaos, what can you rule? The six words of the Taoist case of saving the world-"Don't toss about, you will be saved." Stop fooling around. Zhuangzi said that leaders are like leaves on the tallest tree at the top of the mountain, aren't they? Yes, is it useful? It doesn't work. Ordinary people, like wild animals, run around freely and do whatever they want. Lao Tzu made it very clear that why we have troubles is because we have bodies. If we have no body, do we still have troubles? Conversely, we have to ask him, then can we have no body? I really don't want to get sick. I also know that I am sick because I have a body. I have stomach trouble because I have a stomach. I have tuberculosis because I have lungs. But can I live without my stomach and lungs? So this Taoist couldn't save the world, and finally came out to be a legalist.
Legalist school: saving the world with magic
Legalists say that kindness, fraternity and lovelessness are useless. You Confucianists all talk about loving the people as sons, and don't talk about treating ordinary people as sons, even if they are your own sons. Do you really manage them? Can't you manage it? Look at these guys. How many of them are well managed? You can't control your son. Is it useful to love him? The more you love your child, the more disobedient he is. Look at the problems of the teenager. His parents said it was useless to love him. The teacher taught him, the villagers advised him, and the police came with handcuffs and ropes, and he was fine. What is useful? What is useful is the big stick-criminal law. Love is useless, but Buddhism is useful. Why? It is precisely because people's hearts are evil that people tend to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. He only does beneficial things, not harmful things.
Han Fei told a story. Wu Zixu was arrested and the keeper wanted to take Wu Zixu back to the king. Wu Zixu said, do you know why the king wanted to arrest me? Because the king suspects that I stole his pearls, are you looking for pearls on me now? Did the janitor search? Wu Zixu said, yes, no. But if you want to take me back, the king will definitely ask me for beads, and I'll say you swallowed them. The doorman said, go out, I didn't see you.
Therefore, Han Fei's salvation plan is "two sides and three knives". "Two sides" means that rewards and punishments are clear, and there must be brave men under the reward. Similarly, if it is stipulated that a hand should be cut off when dumping garbage in the street, it will not be invalid. What is the use of education and love? Someone spits everywhere. You say I love you, won't he spit it out? It is stipulated that he will eat back after spitting, and he will not spit. The "three knives" are power, skill and law, that is, power, politics and criminal law. Han Fei said that there are still differences between techniques and methods. The law should be open and the art should be hidden. The law should be made public, so that ordinary people can know what kind of rewards they can get for not picking up money and what kind of punishment they can get for spitting, and the rewards should be heavy and the punishment should be heavy, so that he can lose everything and see if his behavior is bad or not.
In this comparison, we find that Legalism is the most useful. Legalists' salvation strategy is based on people's unreliability and reliable system. Legalists say that Confucianism and Mohism all say that talents should be chosen and talents should be appointed, but how many people have both ability and political integrity in a country? Ten may not count. But if the system is set up, anyone can go to work. Is to design the whole country's system as a machine, just like a computer-controlled program. These programs are automatically scheduled and run. What should a leader do? Just press the button. The emperor ruled the world, as long as he pressed it, even the mentally retarded might be it, so finally the Legalist school succeeded.
Qin Xiaogong took Shang Yang's advice, and Qin became more powerful. After Qin Shihuang unified the whole country, he defined Legalism as national ideology. However, due to the shortcomings of the Legalists and the Qin regime, Qin Ershi died. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the ruling class established Taoism as a national ideology. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was regarded as a national ideology, but legalism was still in practice. The ruling classes of past dynasties took Confucianism as their foreign policy and secret policy, and fooled the masses with Confucianism. You should love the king, because the king and leader are your father, so don't rebel and make mistakes. This is dealing with scholars and ordinary people. By fooling scholars, we can fool ordinary people so that they don't rebel. Therefore, there is no half of the Analects of Confucius to rule the world, only half of the Analects of Confucius to coax the world, and what is really implemented is rewards and punishments. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism and Legalism really became the ruling party, Confucianism was the open ruling party, Legalism was the secret ruling party, Taoism was the opposition party, and Mohism became the underground party.
But I want to emphasize that success is not the most correct. Legalist thought is the most useful and successful, and it is also the most problematic. Mohist thought is the most useless, but it contains many valuable social ideals. So after the Revolution of 1911 and the May 4th Movement, China rediscovered Mohism. Of course, Mohism also has many problems.
Accurately speaking, Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism have their own advantages and disadvantages. Our attitude towards this precious ideological heritage should be equal, abstract inheritance and modern interpretation.