Chapter 50: 129 chapters, blessings to the working brothers and sisters

129 chapters, blessings to the working brothers and sisters

126 chapters,

As long as my life exists, I must think.

Yesterday, I said a lot and did a lot; today, I am still doing and still saying. What I said and did yesterday has long been forgotten by people; indeed, even I myself can't recall what I said or did, let alone others.

Everything is like smoke and clouds, everything is like flowing water, everything leaves no trace, everything is in the process of leaving no trace.

I am an ordinary life; an ordinary life has no history, is not recorded in history.

Because, the existence of an ordinary life is often overlooked by people.

Even if a life overlooked by people exists, what is its meaning?

Is it merely a foil to others' lives?

If you are an ordinary life, no matter how you speak or what you say, others will not think your words are meaningful, or rather, your words are fundamentally meaningless to others.

Don't think you are so important; actually, whether important or not, that is for society to decide.

The standard by which society evaluates is just one: see how great your function to society is, how much you contribute to society.

In Western countries, whoever has the most money is the most capable, a person of talent, able to call wind and summon rain; this experience is being accepted and recognized by our people.

A wise man said: regardless of white cat or black cat, catching mice makes a good cat.

Yes, what qualifications does a pauper have to point fingers at a multi-millionaire?

No matter how you say it, those multi-millionaires have already contributed to society.

They founded companies, set up factories— which of those is easy?

They used their intelligence and talent to create wealth for themselves while also accumulating wealth for society, creating what this world lacked.

Creating what this world lacks—that is the meaning of life.

What already exists in this world is created by others. It is others' works, the fruits of others' painstaking effort.

Even if you envy others' achievements without end and kneel at their feet, that is merely others' mouthpiece.

The great poet Ji Bolun said: 'You have your thoughts, I have my thoughts.'

Why can't we use our own thoughts, our own vision, our own hands, to think, to manifest, to create?

127 chapters,

The gray brothers

Liu Guozong

If there is no memory, no thought, and one lives like a vegetative person, what benefit is such living to the world?

If there is no love or hatred in the heart, unaware of east, west, north, south, and one spends the day in muddled, chaotic activity, is that not causing trouble for the world and adding burden?

Since we cannot be road signs, let us be paving stones—

Trample us underfoot, press down hard,

Completely forgetting our existence.

However, the body bears the whole world,

Under heavy pressure, one can feel its power growing.

Shredded paper and banana peels cover our bodies,

and the foul-smelling ditch that accompanies us all our lives.

Neon-red lights illuminate the big store that stands beside us.

Oh, our various forces head toward the ends of the world.

Children of granite,

thrown into the volcanic crater to be forged,

cut from Earth's bones,

and became material that supports Earth.

If that day comes,

we hear Earth rumbling,

the whole world strides healthily toward the New Epoch,

Oh, gray brothers, we hurry to catch up.

128 chapters,

Three Dreams

Liu Guozong

One,

Laozi said: 'There is a thing, mixed and formed, born before heaven and earth. Silent and solitary. Standing alone without changing, circulating without danger, it can be the mother of heaven and earth. I do not know its name; I call it Dao. Forcing a name upon it, I call it Great. The Great I call Passing. Passing I call Returning. Therefore Dao is great, heaven is great, earth is great, the king is also great. Within the realm there are four greats, and the king occupies one of them. People follow the earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows Dao, Dao follows self‑natural.'

This is early human thought about the cosmos.

Before heaven and earth were formed, what was this universe like?

According to Laozi's conjecture, at that time the entire universe was a void of chaos, 'silent and solitary,' so vast—vast to infinity, boundless; so lonely—lonely to the point of hearing nothing.

Nothing could be seen.

In the boundless expanse of space, how did the earth later come into being?

Who is the sovereign?

Who is the mother of heaven and earth?

Laozi attributed the genesis of all things in heaven and earth to nature; it is the movement of Dao.

Finally Laozi admonished people: "Man follows the earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, Dao follows nature."

All things in heaven and earth must follow the Dao, esteem the Dao, and follow natural laws.

Laozi was a thinker and philosopher.

Thinkers and philosophers always unexpectedly raise questions that people find hard to answer, prompting thought and answers; when others cannot answer, they seem petty, and only when others seem petty can one's own greatness be shown.

As for thinkers and philosophers themselves, they merely leave questions for others to ponder and seek answers; they may not even have clear answers to the questions they pose.

Laozi himself attributed the formation of the universe to the Dao, but what is this Dao? Laozi gave no clear answer.

But Laozi never explained how the Dao is, nor how the Dao transforms the vague, formless "quiet and empty" into things with sun, moon, stars, and also the earth where humans live, with its flowers, trees, springs, firmament, seas, mountains, beasts, birds, insects, aquatic creatures, livestock, and poultry; he never made it clear.

He could not explain it clearly.

The greatness of sages often lies in speaking ambiguously; this is true in our Zhongguo, Laozi is no exception. "Your words: say yes if it is yes, no if it is no; to say more is to be evil."

Laozi is a wise man; of course we cannot say he is evil.

Two,

Questions raised by wise men are still worth pondering.

Because even primary school students know: "People have two treasures, hands and brain. Hands can labor, brain can think."

Quyuan, who lived roughly contemporaneously with Laozi, was even more bewildered and uncomprehending about the formation of the universe and all things.

Some might say Quyuan was a poet.

Poets are innately curious and questioning; Quyuan thus fired off over 1,750 questions at heaven in one breath.

This Quyuan really is an old fool—where do all these doubts come from?

Normally, in youth one knows little of life and the universe—"youth knows not the taste of sorrow"—and asks this and that.

Yet this Quyuan is already advanced in years; how could his heart hold so many doubts?

Since someone asks, someone will answer. Just like the conjecture proposed by Ge de ba he, he himself has no answer to the questions he raises, yet his points are very reasonable.

Since it is reasonable, someone will follow his "reason" and reason further.

No wonder some say human history is merely a record of seeking.

Everyone is seeking.

Seeking the path and direction for one's own advancement.

Moreover, the questions raised by sages and poets concern major affairs of human destiny.

This makes the value and meaning of thinking and seeking even greater.

Otherwise, when death approaches, one may not even know how to die.

For example, on May 8, 2007, the world's major media reported a major cosmic news item: a star called star explosion exploded.

This is the strongest star explosion ever observed by humans.

The brightness of the star explosion exceeded that of 500 billion suns.

Fortunately, this star is too far from our Earth, and it exploded 240 million light‑years ago, when the animals on our Earth had just come onto land.

If that star had exploded recently and been close to us, our Earth would long ago have been reduced to smoke and mist.

In the situation of "the Qi person worries about heaven," a smart person told the Qi person: "Heaven is made of atmosphere; this atmosphere is everywhere, so heaven will never collapse."

That smart person spoke with great reason: heaven is made of atmosphere, atmosphere is everywhere, and heaven will never collapse.

But others say, "Beyond the green mountains, beyond the towers, there are more towers"; is there still heaven beyond that?

Heaven will not collapse, for how could air collapse?

But if another heaven were to collapse and strike our heaven, how could we dodge it?

Remembering the childhood tale of the Qi person worrying about heaven, everyone laughed at that Qi person for being overly anxious, even foolish. Now it seems the Qi person is not fewer but ever more numerous.

In today's popular parlance this is called "sense of crisis."

Three,

Of course this sense of crisis is not about constantly wondering when heaven will fall—that's the job of scholars. As for us little people, we should worry about ourselves and do our own duties.

The ancients said, "Great men have their affairs, petty men have theirs."

If one day a star explosion really destroys the Earth, then worrying would be of no use.

But now we see the orderly motion of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky: daytime brings bright, warm sunshine; night brings glittering stars and moon; they encircle and protect the Earth on which humans live.

Some call our Earth "the pride of heaven."

The ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy even said that all celestial bodies revolve around the Earth (geocentric theory).

Although Copernicus later refuted his view (heliocentric theory), we cannot say Ptolemy was just talking nonsense.

This not only shows Ptolemy's lack of understanding of the universe, but also indicates that ancient people cherished the Earth more than we do.

Our Earth truly is "the pride of heaven."

Consider why our Earth's position relative to the Sun's motion is so suitably moderate.

If it were slightly farther or slightly nearer, we would be either too hot or too cold, and all life on Earth could not survive.

Our Earth would not be as full of life and vigor as it is now; it would likely be a barren, endless wasteland. Moreover, look—air and water, these essentials of life, why are they present only on our Earth and not on other planets?

Recently I heard that Taihu's waters were overwhelmed by blue‑green algae, making them inedible.

At the time I felt strange; as a child I had heard a song that went:

"Taihu is beautiful,

Taihu is beautiful,

beautiful precisely because of Taihu's water."

Why has it become foul now? Media reports say the cause is too many factories along the upper reaches of Taihu dumping waste water into the lake, severely polluting it, ruining its beauty and making it inedible—this is humanity harming itself.

No wonder someone says: "Our Earth is not an ordinary planet, our Sun is not an ordinary star, our solar system is not an ordinary star system. We live on this special star system, beside this special star, on this special planet."

If Earth is the pride of heaven, then we are the pride of Earth.

Shakespeare in his famous work Hamlet, using Hamlet's mouth, praises humanity saying: "Humanity is a most admirable masterpiece! How noble the reason! How great the power! How beautiful the bearing! How elegant the conduct! In behavior, how like an angel! In wisdom, how like a god! The essence of the universe! The pinnacle of all things!"

But this "essence of the universe, pinnacle of all things", this wise person, for fame, for profit, for money, can go kill people, set fires, engage in wrongdoing, engage in corruption and bribery, be suspected of retaliation, make false accusations and frame others, say all good things and do all bad things——

"Weedy grass, crows, how long can you be happy again?"

129 chapters,

Bless the working brothers and sisters.

Liu Guozong

"A piece of dull wood" is Lu Xun's metaphor for Laozi in his novel Leaving the Pass.

Lu Xun compared Laozi to a piece of dull wood, which has two meanings: In Lu Xun's era (including before Lu Xun), building houses cannot be done without wood, so even now some people compare talent to the nation's beams and pillars; Lu Xun added the word "dull" before wood, indicating that although Laozi is material for beams and pillars, he cannot bend and round, go with the flow, be used by the world, thus he is "a dull piece of wood".

The "piece of dull wood" that Lu Xun spoke of in Leaving the Pass includes not only Laozi, but also his students Confucius and Zhuangzi.

You see Confucius carrying the "Six Arts", full of plans for governing, that is "dull"; he traveled among the states, urging people to "overcome oneself and return to propriety", but no feudal lord actually practiced what "self" or restored what "propriety"; everyone was driven by immediate interests, doing as they pleased.

You, Kong Qiu, what sort of person are you? At most you're just a scholar; what right do you have to wag your tongue and wave your hands in front of me?

Therefore, the Laozi that Lu Xun compared to a piece of dull wood is not only himself dull, but also his disciples and descendants under his influence and teaching are also dull.

Not only "dull", nowadays some people even compare Confucius to a "lost dog".

It is said that the person who compares Confucius to a "lost dog" is a professor at China Mou University.

I don't know how that professor suddenly got the idea to target Confucius; what cannot be metaphorized, for example heavenly "planets or meteors" and such?

Perhaps these metaphors are too common, or too many, too lousy, too lacking in originality, now there are too many stars. But, to know the professor's metaphor about the "lost dog", it is also not new or strange.

Remember Lu Xun also compared the "group of pretentious gentlemen" of the first year of the Republic to the deeply hated "lost dog".

Perhaps the professor thought of this by associating with Lu Xun's metaphor?

In short, regardless of whether the professor associated it or not, comparing Confucius to a "lost dog" is inappropriate and also not new or strange.

If we say Confucius is a "lost dog", as for Zhuangzi, although he says he does not eat the fireworks of the human world, he still cannot leave the human world.

In the situation of being unable to feed himself, Zhuangzi still asked people to find some work in the rubber lacquer garden to earn a bit of food; Lu Xun said that another layer of meaning of Laozi being "a piece of dull wood" is that anything worthy of being called a tree must undergo wind and rain, whether big or small.

Especially a big tree that can be called "wood", it has endured countless wind and rain; if it can be used by people to metaphorize a "tree", it is certainly an extraordinary "tree".

Those are all huge "trees", "great timber"; no one would compare those branchy, twiggy things that just bend and bow in the wind and rain to wood, let alone "dull".

Who doesn't know that the "dull" has a "spiritual" nature?

This "spirituality" is not something that a person can casually obtain.

As Lu Xun said: "Nature cannot be changed; fate cannot be exchanged; time cannot be retained; the Dao cannot be blocked. Once you have obtained the Dao, everything is possible; but if you lose it, then nothing is possible."

Professor who compared Confucius to a lost dog, what should you compare Zhuangzi to? In short, no matter what, the metaphor should make readers feel better after reading the article.

Our respected Lu Xun also expresses some things that are hard to accept, somewhat like his metaphor of Laozi as "a piece of dull wood". When you hear him say that: "Nature cannot be changed; fate cannot be exchanged; time cannot be retained; the Dao cannot be blocked." Saying "the Dao cannot be blocked", people still find it easy to accept. If a person lacks the Dao in his heart and has no path before him, is he not a blind man? "Time cannot be retained", this is something even elementary students can understand: "An inch of time is an inch of gold, an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time." "Those who abandon me, yesterday's day cannot be retained"—who can hold onto the years and time?

"Nature cannot be changed; fate cannot be exchanged." This saying, many people cannot accept it.

This is the "theory of heavenly mandate", which restricts people to death.

If "nature cannot be changed; fate cannot be exchanged."

Then why do many people still strive and work hard? Is our constant work and learning merely for "food, clothing, and sustenance"? Is there no component meant to change character and fate?

Don't all the working brothers and sisters under heaven go out of their homes to change their own "nature" and exchange their own "fate"?