In Taoist thought, the best choice for Laozi to govern by doing nothing is to return to nature. Xiao Gongchuan described Lao Tzu as almost laissez-faire, which can be said to be to the point. On the other hand, under the premise of insisting on the necessity of political governance, Huang Lao regards inaction as an ideal governance and governance method. As a theory of governing the world, Huang Lao first affirmed the necessity of rule and governance, and highlighted the necessary political system construction, so that Huang Lao ideologically and logically accommodated the thoughts of system construction of Confucianism and Legalism, and affirmed an institutional system of centralized monarchy. On this premise, Huang Laotao's laissez-faire, based on the Taoist view of nature, aimed at the painful lessons of Qiang Qin's rapid rise and rapid demise, advocated simple administration and decentralization, advocated extravagant taxation, and strived for abstinence. This sets a lot of behavioral boundaries for rulers and managers, which not only puts an end to the excesses, recklessness and recklessness of rulers, but also prevents the political hyperactivity induced by the lust and willfulness of rulers, thus contributing to the natural development of social organisms.
Pure heart and lack of desire: Huang's thought of governing by doing nothing.
Huang's old-fashioned political thought is king in essence, which contains the monarch's personal mind. In the final analysis, the monarch's personal nature is a deliberate cultivation for political purposes. In China's traditional political system, the key to truly simplify politics and decentralize power is the monarch, so the idea of governing by doing nothing must contain the requirements for the monarch's ruling psychology. Huang's old-fashioned demand for the monarch's ruling psychology boils down to abstinence. People's desires tend to expand with the rise of political status, and historical experience has repeatedly verified the relationship between rulers' desires and social chaos control. Generally speaking, the desire of rulers will always bring a wide range of political intervention or resource absorption to the society, or bring social resources too concentrated in the hands of rulers, leading to people's poverty, or people's resentment boiling because of excessive consumption of people's resources, or because of excessive high-pressure control. Legalists also emphasize the monarch's mind, but their focus is on prevention and supervision, that is, legalists require the monarch to hide his positive performance, on the one hand, to prevent the monarch's likes and dislikes from being used by treacherous court officials, on the other hand, to give full play to the enthusiasm of his subordinates. The close combination of the inaction of the monarch and the promising of the minister highlights that the mind of the legalist school is mainly the skill of tactics. Different from the legalists' positioning of the monarch's mind as a tactic of power, Huang's old-fashioned requirements for the monarch's mind more thoroughly reflect the ideal demand of governing by doing nothing, and ensure the inaction of the whole ruling machine by the inaction of the monarch. Huang Laotao also regards the monarch as the key factor to determine how the political machine works, trying to realize the inaction he pursues by influencing the monarch's psychological state. The adjustment of the general plan and policy of governing the country in the early Han Dynasty fully reflected the great change of the monarch's psychological state from desire expansion to abstinence. This change is not only a direct lesson to the rule of the Qin dynasty, after all, the expansion desire of the monarch of the Qin dynasty is closely related to its rapid demise, and it also reflects the effective influence of the Huang Lao family on the rulers. The rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty declared the complete failure of the rulers to rule by law alone. Subsequently, the Han Dynasty summed up the reasons for the demise of the Qin Dynasty in time, adjusted the ruling strategy, established the ruling thought based on Huang Lao's thought, and implemented a political swamp of suppression and relaxation. This practice lasted for 60 years in the early Han dynasty, and it was called Huang Lao politics. It can be seen that the prosperity of Huang Lao's thought and the implementation of Huang Lao's politics in the early Han Dynasty were the product of the interaction of many factors at that time, and they also learned the lessons of Qin's death. As a result, the social and cultural paper "A Study on the Essence of Huang Lao's Thought of Doing Nothing". The Huang family regards the abstinence of the monarch as a necessary condition to realize the rule of the world, and emphasizes that the impetuous, anxious, impatient and greedy mind of the monarch can only be the root of troubled times, while the calm and restrained mind of the monarch is the guarantee to govern the world.
Second, light shake thin fu: the skill of taking and giving from Huang Lao's inaction
On the policy level, Huang's old-fashioned inaction is reflected in his frivolous taxation, which is not only the policy expression of the monarch's abstinence, but also the fundamental guarantee to ensure that the whole ruling machine implements the principle of inaction. Huang Laotao paid special attention to people's self-determination, and the premise of people's self-determination was the principle of purity and inaction in political rule. If the political rule implements the principle of frequent intervention, people may always be influenced by the rewards and punishments of political rule, or forced by political rule, and act around the will of political rule all day long, without having time to act according to their own production and life needs. In the long run, people will be physically and mentally exhausted. After all, it is inevitable that the poor have no money. Political rule must ensure that people can arrange their own actions according to their own production and life needs, and that people can first use their limited human and financial resources for their own production and life, while political rule must correspondingly reduce the absorption of people's human and financial resources. Starting from Laozi, Taoist political thought emphasized the dialectics of taking, based on the reaction of Tao, and highlighted the strategy of taking first and then giving. The Huang family directly simplified the above strategy into a frivolous fu. In fact, it is only a matter of taking less, let alone giving it, which is really inaction, because even the goodwill of the rulers may impact and destroy the comfortable natural state of the people, thus undermining the governance goals decided by the people themselves. From the early years of the Warring States, every vassal state pursued the reform of prosperity and strength, and pursued the rapid concentration of manpower, material resources and financial resources. The active reform policies of various countries encourage people to be rich, but more policies pursue national wealth, and the main measures of national wealth are to encourage production and strengthen absorption. The political result of this policy is to establish a centralized unified empire. However, when the burden of rocking service and taxes exceeds the limits that people can bear, rocking service takes up too much manpower and consumes people's material resources too quickly, and taxes absorb people's basic material resources for production and life. The huge empire has caused the people's desperate situation with the swaying service tax, and the people are indecisive and unbearable. The magnificent Qin Empire lasted only fifteen years. The policy of taking more, taking more quickly, and fishing with exhausted resources will inevitably lead to the political tragedy of the country's ruin and death, and light tax payment will naturally become an alternative option to pursue long-term stability. The popularity of the Huang family in the early Han Dynasty just met the methodological desire of punishing Qin lessons and pursuing long-term stability. It is a security policy provided by the Huang family to the rulers in order to restore the people's strength and achieve long-term stability, which actually creates a prosperous scene of enriching the people and ensuring security.
Third, the wisdom of governing the country: the modern significance of Huang Wuwei
Huang Lao's inaction is not a governance model, but a governance wisdom. As a kind of governance wisdom, it not only has universal reference and reference significance in the complex governance of human society, but also has certain universality. In modern complex social governance, Huang Lao's inaction still shows rich modern implications. The parallel development of the governed and the governed in modern complex society has led to many problems and dilemmas of governance, and even many inconveniences and adverse consequences of governance due to the expansion and operation of power. In fact, many governance problems in modern complex society are caused by governance. Governance is not only an effective means to effectively solve urgent and dangerous social problems, but also the main reason for many complex and intractable problems. As always, modern managers attach great importance to their rationality and kindness, but the objects of governance repeatedly challenge managers with recurring problems. On the other hand, the challenge requires managers to constantly improve their own tool rationality such as technology, means and ability, and deal with the problems and problems of the governed objects in a timely, scientific and effective manner; On the other hand, the challenge requires managers to actively improve their governance concepts, do something different, understand the boundaries and boundaries of governance power, and control their own governance behavior. Generally speaking, the power and means of operating power possessed by modern rulers have greatly surpassed the traditional farming stage, and the demand in this respect is easy to get timely help from science and technology, so the challenge of the ruling object to the energy technology, means and ability of the rulers can easily be met. However, it is quite difficult to innovate the governance concept, because the object of governance is to challenge the boundaries and boundaries of the governance power of the governors, and when the governors are asked to improve the governance concept, they are actually accusing the governors of exercising the governance power excessively or improperly, which is precisely the root of many governance dilemmas and problems. The ruling idea that modern rulers restrict their own power needs to draw nutrition from the thought of doing nothing. To some extent, the rulers of modern complex society can properly handle many contradictions between being in power and being in power, as well as contradictions between goals and means, only by correctly understanding Huang's spiritual essence of governing by doing nothing, understanding the modern significance of governing by doing nothing and fully absorbing its ideological nutrients. Reasonable governance, limited governance and effective governance will make it possible to solve general governance problems without causing new and more difficult governance problems.
Understanding of inaction in Taoist thought 2 1. The origin of inaction
During the Western Han Dynasty, after the death of Liu Bang and Xiao He, Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne, and the prime minister was Cao Can. Cao's participation in Xiao He is quite different in guiding ideology and personal style of governing the country. According to historical records, Cao Can spent all day drinking and having fun at home, doing nothing. In employing people, he doesn't like people who are particularly serious and strict, but uses people who are careless, gentle and not so picky. To this end, many officials around him are also very dissatisfied with their psychological anxiety, thinking that the prime minister is incompetent and useless, and he is also very passive. Han was also very worried, so he criticized bluntly: There are many things that the country needs to do now, but you, the prime minister, have this attitude. I hope the Prime Minister can be diligent and make a difference.
Cao Can pondered for a while, then asked Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty: Your Majesty, how do you compare yourself with Emperor Gaozu in governing the country? Han told me that he felt ashamed. I'm sure I can't reach the level of Gaozu. Cao Can then asked: So?
Your Majesty, what do you think of my comparison with Prime Minister Xiao He? Han said, let's do this. Then Cao Can said: Good! Since we are not as good as them, and before their death, they have formulated all the rules and regulations, and our descendants are not as good as them, then we can only abide by their system, follow their established principles and policies, and don't need to do anything else outside their system.
Hearing this, Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty felt very reasonable and accepted Cao Can's advice. This is also the story of the famous "Little Cao Gui Sui" in history. Cao Can's idea of governing the country is called "governing by doing nothing".
Second, the ideological origin of inaction
As a philosophical thought, the ideological origin of "governing by doing nothing" is "Huang Lao Dao".
"Huangjia" is a school of thought in the Warring States Period. It is a combination of Laozi's thoughts of "doing nothing" and "obeying nature" with the social reality at that time, and at the same time absorbed some thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism.
The Huang family is different from Taoism in Zhuangzi. Taoism in Zhuangzi is a passive hermit, while the Huang family is active in joining the WTO. In fact, the ruling ideology used by Cao Can in the early Han Dynasty was to take Laozi's thought of natural inaction as a way to govern the world, instead of passively avoiding it.
Laozi said: "Tao is always inaction. If the princes can keep it, everything will be created by themselves." The Tao follows the Tao, that is inaction, and inaction can do whatever you want. As a ruler, you should abide by the principle of doing nothing and let everything educate itself and run itself.
Laozi also said, "I do nothing and the people are above, I am quiet and the people are above, I have nothing and the people are rich, and I have no desire and the people are simple." In other words, as long as the people in charge of the country are powerless, they will let the people educate themselves, cultivate the land, rest and do what they should do. Self-production, self-reproduction and self-rehabilitation; The so-called "I'm so quiet" means that you don't always want to do this thing today and that thing tomorrow, but always want to do something that the people ask and that is outside their lives. No, you are quiet, the people are correcting themselves, you don't need to correct the people, you don't need to be afraid that the people are incorrect, you don't need to correct them, as long as you stand still, the people will correct themselves; The so-called "I don't have to do anything but make the people rich" means that you don't have to ask for anything other than the lives of ordinary people, so that ordinary people can restore their economy and get rich themselves. The so-called "I am simple without desire" means that if you have no desire, ordinary people will be simple, and the more desire you have, the more cunning they will become.
Lao Tzu also said so: "saints often have no intention, but take the hearts of the people as their hearts." It means that saints should not have any other ideas that are different from the will of ordinary people and people. Your ideas should be consistent with those of the general public and members of society. Therefore, saints are often careless and take the hearts of the people as their heart.
The Huang family inherited these thoughts of Laozi, and the rulers in the early Han dynasty used these thoughts to effectively govern the country.
Third, the implementation of "inaction politics" is conditional.
It is a historical necessity to implement "governing by doing nothing", which adapts to the historical development trend and public opinion at that time. The reason why the rulers, represented by Cao Can, chose such a general plan for governing the country was also determined by the special social background and conditions at that time.
First of all, because of the war, the people are determined, and they need to cultivate and live. The social economy in the early Han Dynasty was in a state of extreme poverty. At that time, the Han dynasty had just been established and had gone through a long period of Spring and Autumn and Warring States. The war was long, large and cruel. For example, in the "Battle of Changping", the State of Qin wiped out 450,000 of Zhao's main forces, and the combined forces of Korea and Wei1.5,000 were wiped out in vain. Therefore, the whole society and ordinary people have paid a huge price for the war. Finally, in the late Warring States period, Qin unified the whole country. However, after reunification, the people have no chance to recuperate. Due to the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty, a large number of people's resources were mobilized to build the Great Wall, stone roads and Mount Li, and soldiers were also mobilized to attack the Xiongnu, so the people did not get a chance to breathe after reunification. Not only that, the Qin Dynasty's exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees became more and more severe, and the laws were harsh, which made people live in a panic atmosphere and feel very nervous mentally. The tyranny of the Qin dynasty quickly aroused people's resistance, and a peasant uprising took place at the end of the Qin dynasty. At that time, there were two major anti-Qin forces, one was Liu Bang and the other was Xiang Yu. After overthrowing the Qin Dynasty, they continued to fight for sovereignty, which is the so-called Chu-Han dispute in history. The battle between Chu and Han lasted for another five years, resulting in the displacement of a large number of people. In this way, from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, to the Qin Dynasty, to the end of the Qin Dynasty, to the dispute between Chu and Han, China never settled down. The long-term war made the newly established Han Dynasty's social economy very broken, the people's life was very poor, and the whole society, including those nobles, heroes and even emperors, was not rich. A lot of land is barren and population is lost. Historical records record that the then emperor Liu Bang was going to hold an accession ceremony. Because the country is poor, he dare not talk about ostentation and extravagance, so he has to do it hastily. It is said that many generals, generals, prime ministers and some ministers didn't have a carriage when they went out, so they had to take an ox cart. Rulers are still like this, let alone ordinary people.
Secondly, the economy is in urgent need of recovery, and it is urgent to solve the basic survival and living problems of the people with food and clothing. China was a feudal society dominated by agriculture in ancient times, and labor was the most important factor of production. Because of years of war, most men were recruited and killed, which inevitably led to the shortage of the main labor force in the family, and then a large number of land was barren. At that time, Liu Bang went out to inspect Kunshi, and saw that there were about 5,000 families there, marveling at "Zhuang Zai, Jun Zai!" . He said: "I ran around the world and saw Luoyang alone." It means that I have traveled all over the world and visited many places. I have never seen so many people except Luoyang. There were more than 30 thousand families in this place during the Qin Dynasty. It can be seen that even there were so many Luoyang in Kyoto at that time, while the population loss in other places was serious. Reflected the depression of social economy at that time. Therefore, for the Han Dynasty, which just established political power, it is the first priority to restore the economy and solve the problem of food and clothing for ordinary people. Otherwise, the national strength will be fragile, people will be distracted and the country will not be guaranteed.
The third is to ease class contradictions. After the war, the main contradiction in China was to develop production and solve people's living needs, so class contradictions and social contradictions were relatively eased. Because there was no land problem for farmers at that time, the conflict between the peasant class and the landlord class in feudal society was mainly land problem. In the early Han Dynasty, there were fields, but no seeds. At that time, there were not many landlords, all of them were poor, the society was generally poor, and even the rulers were poor, so there was nothing to exploit. In this case, the people's desire is not so strong, and the country and the people's ideas are more consistent.
Fourth, ethnic conflicts have been alleviated. From the Qin Dynasty to the early Han Dynasty, the main hidden danger of national stability was the Xiongnu issue. However, due to the pro-Xiongnu policy of Liu Bang and the later Emperor Han Wendi and Han Jingdi of Han Hui, this ethnic contradiction was alleviated. In the early Han Dynasty and Xiongnu, peace was the most important thing, and there was no major war or conflict. This created conditions and possibilities for the rulers at that time to "govern by doing nothing" and let the people farm their lives. If ethnic contradictions are prominent, national security is threatened, grass and trees are in danger, and people's hearts are unstable, will the rulers dare to sleep well?
Fourth, look at how to "govern by doing nothing" in the early Han Dynasty.
It should be said that the "inaction" in the early Han Dynasty began with Cao Can, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. Then came Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty and Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. During this period, in what ways did the rulers of the Han Dynasty "do nothing"? What specific practices are embodied in their "inaction politics"?
The first is to pay less taxes and reduce the burden on the people. Since Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, the tax burden of farmers has been reduced from one tenth to one fifteenth. By Wendi, all taxes were exempted, which lasted for 12 years. Emperor Han Jing reduced the tax rate to one thirtieth. In order to let the people develop their economy better, they made great concessions in economy. In the corvee, use as few people as possible and send as few corvees as possible. At the same time, the emperor himself was very frugal. It is said that Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty wore coarse cloth, but nothing was gold or silver. He built his own mausoleum, without any luxuries, all earthenware and pottery. He didn't expropriate people's money or use more labor, for fear of increasing people's burden.
The second is lenient punishment and light imprisonment. For example, in terms of punishment, when Emperor Gaozu took charge of the country, he abolished many harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty. By the time of Emperor Wendi, some torture was abolished. At that time, there was an imperial edict in the state of Qi, saying that Chun had broken the law and it was cruel to punish him according to the original law. At that time, his little daughter Ti Ying wrote a letter to the emperor. He said that my father usually works honestly and seriously, but this time he may be confused and break the law. He should be punished for breaking the law, but if you sentence him to death, or use torture, he will never change, and he will never have a chance to turn over a new leaf. She said that she was willing to come to the court as a slave to atone for her father. This letter caught the attention of Emperor Wen. He really felt that the punishment at that time was too harsh and cruel, which was not conducive to easing social contradictions. Therefore, Emperor Wen ordered the immediate abolition of some cruel punishments. For example, some people who can be sentenced to death according to the original law have their sentences reduced, giving people a chance to live. In particular, the penalties of "enthronement" and genocide were abolished. If one person commits a crime, one person should be punished, and family members should not be implicated, let alone extinct. In terms of corporal punishment, the original 500 lashes were changed to 300 lashes, 300 lashes were changed to 200 lashes by computer, and 200 lashes were changed to 100 lashes. At the same time, Emperor Wen of Han also stipulated that playing the board should not kill people as much as possible, so that he could have a chance to mend his ways. This practice has played an effective role in easing social contradictions.
The third is to implement "benevolent government". In view of the disrespect for vassal States in some places at that time, Emperor Wen of Han adopted a very generous attitude. For example, at that time, Nanyue State was established by some northerners sent to the south by the Qin Dynasty, and was hit, excluded and blocked by Lv Hou's family, so the relationship was always tense. As a result, he later developed into an independent emperor. It is said that this is not allowed by the court. He had to launch a crusade and punish him with the most severe means, but Emperor Wendi didn't. He repaid good for evil, not only didn't hit you, but also built a temple for his hometown in the north, where his family could sacrifice, and at the same time took care of everyone in the Wei family. Wei Tuo, who proclaimed himself emperor in South Vietnam, was very moved by this incident. He felt that he should not have done such a heinous thing, so he took the initiative to cancel the emperor and no longer set up another hill.
For example, Liu Bi, the local warlord of Wu at that time, also had many contradictions with the imperial court. Liu Bi has been planning evil plans and has never appeared in front of the emperor. Wendi was very calm about it at that time. It doesn't matter if you don't come to court. I will take the initiative to send someone to find you and give Liu my cane, which shows that you are an old man. Since you are an old man, you can show your respect for Liu Bi without going to court, which makes Liu a little embarrassed. Because you don't come to court, this is also an outrageous behavior. You should be punished for not respecting the court's behavior. However, instead of punishing you, the court respects you, so Liu Bi can't confront the court at least in face. This practice eased the relationship between the central government and Wu and Liu Bi to some extent.
The fourth is to make peace with the Huns. For a long time, the harassment of Huns in Qin and Han dynasties has become a heart disease for those in power. However, the attitude towards Xiongnu in the early Han Dynasty was to govern by doing nothing. Doing nothing does not mean not resisting, but fighting back to a certain limit, that is to say, just beating the Xiongnu away, not going deep into the hinterland of Xiongnu, and relieving the border troubles. This happened at that time. Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang died and Lv Hou came to power. At this moment, Attila wrote a letter humiliating Lv Hou, saying that my wife died and you lost your husband. I feel very lonely, so do you. Lv Hou flew into a rage and immediately called ministers to send troops to fight. But calm down, we can't rely on temporary anger. She knew that the Han Dynasty was weak and had no strength to fight against the Huns. Emperor gaozu fought the Huns for many years. What was the result? After being reminded by ministers, Lv Hou had to submit to humiliation and wrote a reply to Xiongnu, saying that I was old and frail, which was not worthy of your attention. They had to swallow this tone.
Fifth, the result of the policy of "governing by doing nothing" in the early Han Dynasty.
Generally speaking, the result of "governing by doing nothing" in the early Han Dynasty was that the economy began to recover and develop. With the development of economy, the whole society began to have vitality. This kind of economic development, from the establishment of the early Han Dynasty to the later Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, lasted for about 70 years, and always adopted the way of doing nothing. To what extent has the economy developed? According to historical records, there is more grain in the country, and the granaries are full. In many places, the grain in the granary is rotten, and there is more money in the national treasury, so that the money is rotten. People's lives are basically well-fed. People can eat enough and put on more gorgeous clothes. At that time, it was recorded that a horse rode out. If people with status ride mares and are looked down upon, the whole social life will begin to change. It can be said that the country is rich and strong.
(1) Evaluate the qualification of intermediate engineer.
The qualification conditions for evaluating intermediate eng