The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

Chapter 2672 Throwing stones to solve the problem

"If Heaven decrees it, it will be lacking," the young man retorted.

Zhang Houlu thought quickly and immediately replied: "After death, one's nature returns to its origin, and heaven will not lack it."

The young man suddenly picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at Zhang Houlu.

Zhang Houlu is a bachelor. If a foreign object attacks, it will inevitably be bounced away by instinct. However, everyone was surprised to see that the stone acted like Zhang Houlu's power did not exist, and drew a beautiful arc. It landed on Zhang Houlu's forehead, leaving a shallow red mark on it.

Some of the scholars looked angry. How dare a child attack a great scholar!

However, it was difficult for them to have an attack, so they were all waiting to see how Zhang Houlu would handle it.

Zhang Houlu froze in place, as if he had been stunned, and began to be in a daze.

"When the stone falls to the ground and returns to its source, where does your pain come from and where does it go? What about your surprise, your confusion, and your worry?" asked the young man.

Zhang Houlu was still sitting there motionless.

The others looked at Zhang Houlu blankly, and then turned to look at the unattractive young man. They were all deeply shocked. It would not be surprising if a great scholar said such a thing, but how could a child say such a simple and simple thing? Such a mysterious truth?

Everyone gave up their previous prejudices and thought about the young man's words.

A Jinshi tentatively replied: "The pain comes from your strength, so the pain is naturally given to him by you."

The young man looked at the pebbles in front of the tiger skin and asked, "Why can I make it hurt?"

The Jinshi continued: "The answer is too complicated. I can say it is your power, but your body is moving, and your mind is also moving. The reason why you can move is that some come from talent, and some come from food. If you ask this question, you will eventually come back to the beginning, it is God who gives everything.”

"The angel gave him pain, and I gave him pain. God gave him his nature, and I gave him his nature."

After the young man finished speaking, everyone was stunned for a moment.

Zhang Houlu slapped his thigh and shouted: "That's right!"

Everyone was shocked.

Zhang Houlu seemed to be unable to see the crowd, looked directly at the young man, and said: "The power used by Heaven is the Dao. All things should move according to the Dao of Heaven."

"Tao, the place where it passes, is it correct?" the young man asked.

Zhang Houlu hesitated for a moment, nodded and said: "Yes."

"Is the beginning and end of the journey also the Tao?" the young man asked.

Zhang Houlu was stunned for a few breaths, his face changed several times, and he gritted his teeth and said: "It can be regarded as the Tao."

“Is there a Tao beyond the Tao?”

Zhang Houlu said bravely: "The way that is not the way is also the way."

The young man picked up another stone, hit Zhang Houlu on the head again, and asked, "Does it hurt or not?"

Zhang Houlu argued: "It didn't hurt at first, it hurts now, and it won't hurt in the near future. This is all true."

Fang Yun picked up the stone for the third time but did not throw it out. He asked, "Does it hurt or not?"

Zhang Houlu said quickly: "It hurts if it falls on me, but it doesn't hurt if it doesn't fall on me."

Fang Yun threw it, landed on Zhang Houlu's head, and then fell to the ground.

Zhang Houlu was stunned.

"Does it hurt or not?" Fang Yun asked.

"It doesn't hurt." Zhang Houlu replied slowly.

Everyone saw confusion in Zhang Houlu's eyes, and then they themselves were confused.

"Wherever it passes, it is the Tao, and the Tao is not empty! What is right is what is right, and what is not and what is wrong. If there is no distinction between right and wrong, it is not the Tao. The way of man must be clear, otherwise the world will be in chaos. The way of heaven must be clear, otherwise The world is in chaos. If there are no seasons in the sky, no sun and moon, and it is hot and cold, and it is bright and dark, how can people survive? If all things are Tao, where will the Tao be? "The young man is the Tao.

Zhang Houlu solemnly said: "Sir, that's what you said. The way you should do is the way, and the way you shouldn't do is not the way. This is the way for scholars. However, if you follow the way, know your nature, and get your destiny, what's wrong with that?"

The young man said: "Let me ask you, what is nature ordained by heaven? What is it that is not ordained by heaven?"

Zhang Houlu froze on the spot, his eyes changed, his body was full of energy, and his forehead was dripping with sweat.

Everyone carefully chewed the young man's words and found that they made great sense and completely subverted the view of destiny of the sages of the human race.

Before this, everyone believed that destiny was destiny, and that God gave human nature. However, no one explored the problem from another angle like young people. Since God is the supreme existence, there must be more power, and it is impossible to only have the bestowal. The power of human nature.

Apart from nature, what else can people get from heaven?

Are those things given by God in other ways, or are they things God doesn’t want to give?

The young man continued: "What God has ordained is his nature, so he should take it. What God does not ordain, but what man thinks, desires and wants, he can also take!"

After the young man finished speaking, he walked out, seemingly very slowly, but he took dozens of feet in one step.

Zhang Houlu was stunned for a few breaths, then suddenly slapped his forehead and caught up with him at a steady pace. As he chased, he shouted: "Sir, please teach me! If you don't cultivate your destiny, what should you cultivate and what power should you cultivate?"

"Reason!" The young man uttered one word and disappeared.

Zhang Houlu stood there blankly, suddenly remembering that someone had said the word "reason" before, but for a moment he didn't know who said it.

He squatted on the ground, holding his hair with his left hand, and kept writing the word "reason" on the ground with the index finger of his right hand. He was thinking hard, and suddenly stood up suddenly, his eyes flashing with light.

"I remembered!"

Zhang Houlu roared and rushed straight to the capital of Jingguo.

Many scholars wanted to know what the two said in the end, but they lost track of them because their literary rank was too low.

The people in Yuzhen finally stopped at the place where Zhang Houlu stopped, looking at the crooked "reason" characters.

"Who do you think that young man is?"

"I don't know, but I remember someone said on the discussion list a few days ago that there have been unknown young people in various parts of the human race. They are not well-known, but their words are powerful and make people suddenly enlightened. They are not inferior to university scholars or even great scholars. After that, some people wanted to find those young people, but they came to nothing. They couldn't find any trace of that person at all. It was very strange. This person is a bit like the one mentioned by the person on the discussion list."

"I don't think it's important who that young man is. What's important is what he said and the reason he said."

"Yes, we shouldn't think too much, as long as we understand his reason."

"I understand what he said, that is, the way should be real and not false, right and not wrong, wrong, That is not the Tao. We always think that everything has the Tao, but in fact, some so-called Tao is not the real Tao. To give the simplest example, the sage Tao of the strategists was completely swallowed up by the political Tao, so we can be sure that the sage Tao of the strategists is not the Tao, but the political Tao is. "

"Yes, his explanation of the Tao is very clear and there is nothing difficult to understand. However, I was a little confused when he talked about the destiny. "

"Me too. Because I didn't understand until the end that the young man wanted to deny the entire practice of forging destiny. "

"I do understand one thing he said. What he meant was that there are actually many destiny. We humans only get our nature, but we can't be satisfied and we have to get other destiny. "

To put it simply, Tao and the Great Dao are different concepts. The Tao at the beginning of "Laozi" is the Great Dao. The Great Dao is very similar to the "reason" in this book.

The Tao of orthodox Confucianism, such as Confucius's Tao, refers only to human behavior, that is, the correct way to be a person and do things, which is the human way. The holy Tao in this book is the law of all things and the most common understanding.

As for the Taoism, it is detached, indescribable, unattainable, and even just a logical existence, not a specific material, spirit or force. If we really want to respect Laozi as the ancestor of Taoism, strictly speaking, people cannot master the Taoism. If we really want people to obtain the Taoism as described in novels, it is actually equivalent to rebelling against Taoism.

The "reason" of Confucianism is almost the same as the "Taoism" in nature, but the difference is that Confucians believe that they can master the reason, or in other words, the reason should be mastered by Confucians.

Through this point, we can see the real difference between Confucianism and Taoism. Confucianism is the real humanism. So every time I see someone say that Laozi is the leader of humanity, I am a little confused. Laozi pursues transcendence, and what he really cares about is the Taoism. He is a person who opposes socialization, a person who affirms the natural state, and a person who affirms obedience to nature or the Taoism.

It can be said that Laozi is an agnostic and Confucius is an atheist. This is what I think is the biggest difference between the two.

I will talk about it in detail somewhere when I have time.