Heaven and earth are cruel, and everything is a grass dog "comes from the fifth chapter of this edition of Tao Te Ching." Since ancient times, many people have criticized this sentence of Laozi as insidious, mean and thorough. Because they explained that this sentence means that heaven and earth are heartless, giving birth to all things and playing with all things as grass dogs. This is a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Laozi's thought. "straw dogs" here refers to a dog made of grass. Dogs are sacrifices of ordinary people in ancient times (because they can't afford such big sacrifices as pigs, cows and sheep). With the evolution of social atmosphere, people no longer use real dogs, but use grass to form a dog shape instead (this is equivalent to replacing the real pig head with a pig head made of flour during worship). After straw dogs was made, before it was used for sacrifice, everyone attached great importance to it and dared not touch it casually. Wait until after the sacrifice, and then put it behind you. There is no goodness in heaven and earth, it has no kindness, and it treats everything like a dog, and everything is resigned to fate. Saints have no compassion. They also treat people like pigs and let them take care of themselves. Isn't it like a bellows between heaven and earth? Empty and inexhaustible, the more encouragement, the more wind, endless. Numerous laws are more confusing and infeasible, so it is best to keep quiet. Everything is born in heaven and earth, and it does not take credit; Heaven and earth give life to everything, and it is not proud of it; Heaven and earth do good, making everything endless. Do what you can, there are no conditions. Everything in the world, like a lost grass dog, is not particularly good for people, especially bad for other things, and does not want to get any return from everything. People are poor in everything, and even people help others, often with conditions attached, hoping to get a return because of people's selfish ideas. Therefore, Lao Tzu suggested that people should follow the spirit of "different people have different opinions" in heaven and earth and cultivate such a mind. This is the true meaning of Laozi's "Heaven and Earth are heartless, and everything is a grass dog". From the fifth chapter of Laozi's Tao Te Ching: Heaven and earth are heartless, and everything is a grass dog; Saints are heartless and treat people like pigs. Between heaven and earth, is it still ambiguous? Empty and unyielding, move out. It is better to stay in the middle than to talk too much and count too little. After the Wenchuan earthquake, everything was cruel, everything was cruel, and Lao Tzu's words spread like wildfire. This sentence is "the world is cruel, and everything is cruel." People's understanding is probably: "God, you are so heartless, so you are destroying the people!" "Is this understanding in line with Lao Tzu's original intention?" Heaven and earth are heartless, and everything is a grass dog; Saints are heartless and regard people as pigs. "From the fifth chapter of this edition of Lao Zi. The legendary Hegong (some people think he belongs to Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty) has a note: "The change of heaven and earth is not benevolent, but it is also." "Heaven and earth create everything, and people are the most expensive. Heaven and earth regard it as grass, dogs and livestock, and do not blame it. The sentence "saint" says like this. It means that heaven and earth don't care about kindness, and let nature take everything as a grass dog. Wang Bi's note: "Heaven and earth are natural, created by doing nothing, and everything is autonomous, so it is heartless. The benevolent will make things happen, and they will be kind and hopeful. If something is made, it will be lost. If there is goodness, there is nothing. If something doesn't exist, it's not enough to load. Heaven and earth do not make straw for animals, but animals eat straw; Not for dogs, but people eat dogs. It is necessary to do nothing, and everything is suitable for its purpose. If Hui Hui (Tonghui) is made by itself, it is not enough. " (According to Lou Yulie's "Wang Bi Ji Shi", Zhonghua Book Company, 1999 edition) Wang Bi's intention is to let nature take its course and not add benefits to things. Everything has its uses, such as animals eating grass and people eating dogs. The world-famous Mr. Hu Shi explained this sentence in Laozi in his Outline of China's Philosophical History (Volume I) (the first edition of the Commercial Press 19 19), and put forward two statements: the first statement is that Wang Bi interprets benevolence as kindness; The second is a philosophical explanation, saying that benevolence means "human". "The Doctrine of the Mean" says: "People are benevolent." "Mencius" said: "People are also benevolent. Liu Xi's "Interpretation of Names" said: "People are benevolent; Benevolence, biology also. "unfriendly means not people, not the same kind. The ancients regarded heaven as the master with will, knowledge and anger, and regarded heaven as the same kind of person, which is called the theory of harmony between man and nature. Laozi's theory of inhumanity between heaven and earth seems to contain the meaning that heaven and earth are different from people. Then, Hu Shi said: "among human nature, kindness is the most common, so heaven and earth are different from others, that is, there is no goodness in heaven and earth." "This unifies two different statements. Finally, Hu introduced the concept of Laozi as he understood it, and said, "This concept of Laozi broke the ancient fallacy of the similarity between man and nature and laid the foundation for later natural science. "In 1922, Liang Qichao also thought that Laozi's words showed his belief in heaven wavering, which opened Xunzi's thought of heaven. Mr. Zhong Tai's History of China Philosophy, Volume I, Chapter III has an attachment, Lao Zi's Benevolence of Heaven and Earth Makes Everything a Grass Dog Solution (First Edition of Commercial Press 1929), which refutes this. As the saying goes: "I have read the whole book of Laozi, and I know that what it says comes from the penetration, which is not enough to make a final conclusion." "It will be expounded from three aspects: First, from the linguistic point of view, the so-called' benevolent, human' is to seek its etymology, not equivalence." The word person is an abstract noun, not a concrete noun. Therefore, it is ok to cultivate people's kindness, but it cannot change people. Hu Shizhi believes that we can only say "non-benevolence", but not "ruthlessness". What's more, there is a sentence below this sentence that "saints are heartless and people are dogs", which can't be understood as "saints are not human"? Secondly, judging from the whole book of Laozi, "Skynet is long, sparse but not leaking" and "Heaven has no relatives and often works with good people" are all words of Laozi. Therefore, the evidence is not enough to conclude that Laozi broke the fallacy of the unity of man and nature. Third, Hu Shizhi mistakenly believed Wang Bi's statement of "one straw dogs". Wang Bizhi said that straw and dogs are two things, that the sky does not plant grass for animals, but animals eat grass; Heaven doesn't make dogs, but people eat dogs. It contains the meaning that everything in the sky is dust. In fact, a dog is a thing. "Zhuangzi Tian Yun" contains Shi Jin's words: "Husband and dog are not Kerwin Chen, but they are full of faces, and Mao Jinxiu writes, and the corpse hopes to fast. While he has been in Kerwin Chen, the Walker practiced the first ridge and the Soviet Union took it. When the pig was tied up but not sacrificed, it was put in a box and covered with a beautiful embroidered towel. The corpse wants to fast and take it to the altar. After the sacrifice, it will be abandoned, pedestrians will step on its head and back, and firewood collectors will pick it up and burn it. "Taking all things as straw dogs" refers to the development process of regarding all things as straw dogs, respecting them when using them, discarding them when using them, and letting them flourish until they decline. This is naturally unkind. It should be said that Mr. Zhong's statement is quite correct. However, what is straw dogs, what is its purpose, and what is its birth and death process? Mr. Zhong didn't make it clear either. For example, straw dogs is the essence of straw. In his book "Zhuangzi Fawei", he also said: "Taking thatch as a human figure and burying it is called inferiority; Sacrifice is called straw dogs. Later generations painted the statue on paper and stretched it with bamboo as the bone, which is called paper horse, that is, the change of pig and dog. Paper horses are not horses, and dogs are not dogs. Li Yiyun: "This is a dog getting married." Not exactly. ..... Since the Qin Dynasty, the grass dog system has ceased to exist. Therefore, people in the Wei and Jin Dynasties no longer knew what straw dogs was, but spoke their own words. I don't know what dogs say, but they use it temporarily, so it is like a dog. "(Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1988, p. 324) In fact," grass dog "is to tie grass into the shape of a dog and use it to seek blessings and disasters when diseases and epidemics occur. At this time, it is necessary to dress up. After the prayer, worshippers can enjoy the sacrifice. Even if the pig is abandoned, people will step on the ox cart and use it as firewood and burn it. We can understand it by looking at the records in the Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. "Huainan Ziqi Custom" said that when pigs and earth dragons were just finished, they were decorated with bluish yellow, covered with embroidery and wrapped in red lines. The bodies want to wear pure black sacrificial clothes, and doctors wear hats to meet them. When it is used up, the earth dragon is just a pile of soil, while straw dogs is just a pile of soil. Who cares about them? Xu Shen in his bet: "A straw dogs, a bundle of straw for a dog, as a blessing. Tu Long, please rain. "Obviously, straw dogs is made of grass and looks like a dog, while Tulong is made of mud and looks like a dragon. Grass dogs are used to thank blessings, and earth dragons are used to beg for rain. " "Talking about the Mountain" also said that "pigs wait for them to come and have fun." Tan Lin also said: "For example, if the earth dragon is dry and the pig is sick, it is time to be emperor." "This shows more clearly that one of the major uses of straw dogs is to sacrifice to God and seek happiness when the plague is prevalent. At this time, its status is like an emperor. Naturally, throw it away when you use it. Before the sacrifice, the status of pigs was respected, which was extremely glorious. Immediately after the sacrifice, it was abandoned and the car was burned, as mentioned above. In the propaganda of Zhou Weizhi in Three Kingdoms, it is also very interesting to show the three processes of pig sacrifice through "Three Dreams". It is said that Zhou Xuan is good at divination, so someone deliberately came to test him, saying that he dreamed of a straw dogs, and Zhou Xuan said that he would get delicious food. Soon after the trip, I really met a rich meal. Later, he said that he dreamed of straw dogs again. Zhou Xuan said, "Be careful, you'll fall off the car and break your foot. "Soon, as he said. The third time, he said that he dreamed of a straw dogs. Zhou Xuan said, "Pay special attention, your house will catch fire. "The house really caught fire soon. The person who asked later said, "Actually, I didn't dream of straw dogs three times. Why is it so effective? Zhou Xuan said, "This is what the gods told you. It is no different from a real dream." The questioner said, "I told you three times that I dreamed of a straw dogs." Why is the result so different? Zhou Xuan said: "A straw dogs is a sacrifice to God." At the beginning of the sacrifice, the sacrifice can be divided into people, so you get delicious food After the sacrifice, straw dogs was run over by a car, so it would fall off the car and break its foot. After that, the broken pig will be taken to the fire, so it will catch fire. (Xuan Yue: "Dogs are sacrifices to God. So you start dreaming when you have more food. When the sacrifice is over, the pig will be trampled by the car, so the dream is to fall off the car and break its foot. After the dog is in the chariot, it will be considered as firewood, so it will worry about the fire after the dream. "These materials clearly explain the shape of the pig, the materials used, the purpose and the process of birth, residence and extinction (borrowing Buddhist language). This process is a natural one. It is expensive to use it, and it is useless to use it. Everything in the world is like this. " Heaven and earth are heartless, and everything is a grass dog ",that is, heaven and earth are heartless, just let everything go through the process from glory to abandonment like a grass dog." This also means "saints are heartless, and people are pigs". Here, there is no intention of harming the people. In the semantic evolution of "man can conquer nature" (published in Wen Wei Po on July 20, 2008), Mr. Li Weiguo also put the "Heaven" in Laozi into practice, that is, to win without arguing, to speak without saying anything, to come at the call, and to be resourceful and resourceful, but not to leak (Chapter 73 of this biography) and Sages are heartless, and people are pigs ",explaining:" Heaven and earth are heartless, just like the dream of heaven in the Book of Songs ". Heaven is competitive, but it is still like the Book of Songs. ..... Shen should be familiar with this sentence of Laozi, which can also be used as a source of "Man can conquer nature, and nature can conquer man". "It is understood that" heaven and earth are heartless "means that the way of heaven and earth is blocked and benevolence and righteousness disappear. Although there is a saying in Volume XII of the Book of Changes by lin li in Song Dynasty: "If there is no justice, heaven and earth will be blocked, everything will be destroyed, and sages and fools will easily take their place." If there is no justice, only people will listen to themselves. "So, Lao Tzu said" heaven and earth are heartless "and Shen said" man can conquer nature ". At this time, Fang is based on the heart of heaven and earth, but his understanding is to explain his own views, which is not in line with Lao Tzu's original intention.