Hello, everyone, in last class, we talked about the basic information about Tao and Taoism, as well as the difference and connection between them. In this class, we will talk about the core cultural ideology in Taoism. Generally speaking, there are five points: the first one is respect Taoism and morality. the second one is love your life. the third one is the theory that man is an integral part of nature, Tao models itself after nature. of course, if explaining it politically, it is called govern by non-interference. the fourth one : peace and quiet , have few desires, be carefree and enjoy life. the five one is the dialectical thought called the principle of Tao is reversal. Let's look at the first one. it is the highest belief in Tao, so in spiritual level, what tao te ching stresses the most is Dao and De. what is Dao? First, Dao is the motive power of cosmic inventories. this thing is a little bit of untruthful. it has one sentence The way bears sensation, sensation bears memory, sensation and memory bear abstraction, and abstraction bears all the world. it illustrates a natural law. that is to say everything in the world has its own rule. Obeying Dao, you will not act recklessly. it is not made by man, it is natural, so it respects nature. in nature, we can see the plant is grown up from seed, and the poultry is born through eggs. human and mammal are viviparous. so this is the rule concerning Dao. of course, it tells such a concept, Dao is a kind of rule hidden behind these things. Generating and developing according to this rule, this is a kind of Dao. Second, there is the greatest virtue or norm in Dao, it take nothingness as the principal thing, it emphasizes peace and quiet , letting things take their own course. third, truth is permanent, it exists in every place. what does it mean? actually, it is the consistent rule in the universe. it is not changed according to human will. it is not created by man. what we talked here belongs to the theory that man is an integral part of nature. we will talk more in the future. we think that rules are very important for people's health or they are essential for human life. Then, what is De? DaoJiaoYiShu once says that Dao and De are an organic whole the meaning is that Dao and De is not easy to distinguish. Because Dao is showed through De, there is also difference in "virtue" or "reason", however, we can't separate them, we can not integrate them, either. Because De is not the fundamental element of good fortune, but people should be based on De if they cultivate themselves according to a religious doctrine, it is the concept that tao te ching want to express. that is to say observing the principle of the god, carrying out the god's order. in the second aspect, let's look Immortality thinks a lot of life, helping people and the world. it is the core aim in Tao. Han Feizi referred that YangZhu won't pay a penny for the benefits of the world. this is the rudiment of the ideology in Taoism which stresses life while don't care about materials. the attitude Taoists towards life is loving life. Namely people should cherish life. particularly, in last class, we mentioned that Taoists think that a dead king can't equal a living rat. so we must have a good living. and, except human, everything in the world obeys such rules. first, for ourselves, LaoZi said that go through fire and water, very few people can survive. what does it mean? There are dangers all around the world, life is threatened at any time, so you should take preventive measures. so the concept of keeping good health has something to do with Taoism. it stresses that you should do precautions in the early period so that it can reinforce the function. living a long life with good eyes and ears acknowledges the living rights of all kinds of creature. and it take the best state of nursing life as a very important aspect. it said in JinShuPian Nutrients concentration of heaven and earth shall be attached it is such kind of thought. The responsibility of god is to make the birds fly higher, make the animals run faster and longer make the jewel more beautiful, make the plants stronger. make the saints wiser. this is the principle of governance, TaiShangGanYingPian points many kinds of behaviours which do harm to life and all things on earth, for example, SheFeiZhuZou and FaZheJingQi, TianXueFuChao and so on. for example, watering nest with hot water and kids are bitten by ants. hurt fetus and eggs, kill trees with medicine do hunting, kill the fish and snakes unreasonably. According to the degree of the crimes, the Kitchen God decides the punishment He calculates the years the criminal should be derived until the criminalâs life is over Here, the aim of the sentence is to persuade people to treat life kindly. and should respect life. Standing on this point, this is very important in modern society. seeing from the whole big social level, people's appeal to respecting life is higher and higher and people pay much attention to this. Why should we respect life? Taoism requires people to respect life and enjoy life. through practice, Although the material life can't be eternal but through practice, it can be continued in spiritual level. of course, some people say that it is the last ditch effort for Taoists, because no matter what they do such as refining Dan which can not make people live forever. Since my body can't live forever, I can achieve the state of spiritual eternity through improving mental shackles. this is a way to become immortals. Whether improving the quality of life to a immortal state is good or not. I think it is very good. If a person lives in a painful state for a long time, it is not a good thing. if people can live in a happy atmosphere in which you can have a high level of spirits. Then the quality of life is quite high. Sometimes, seeing from the view of medicine, you can't separate it from natural science simply, in this way, people is just a machine, which is inappropriate. this is the second point. the third aspect is theory that man is an integral part of nature, in social aspect, it is called governing by doing nothing that goes against nature. the ecological ethic spirit concerning the harmony between man, nature and society. is such a concept. in the book ZhuangZi, there are words people and heaven are integrated. What does it mean? it means that human and nature are a whole. Here, heaven and earth refer to the nature, or you can say universe. Human and nature is a whole, that is to say people's idea, behaviours are consistent with the change of nature. it makes people return to his original nature, and recover to his natural instincts. in a highly developed material civilization, people should have a good reflection. At the international level, there are ideas of respecting nature. A lot of man-made things include food, devastated forest, or polluted atmosphere. They finally will hurt people's health. these are the heated topics at present. So, Taoists upholding nature and obeying the objective rule are right. it put up with the idea that there should be laws in the nature, namely the Tao way follows nature the words reveal the characteristics of the whole universe, and the continuous rules. of course, governing by doing nothing that goes against nature has created many times of national peace and order including Rule of Wen and Jing. the basic meaning on the first side is obeying the rules in nature, on the second side is not doing things randomly. Seeing from the political perspective, it refers to delegate powers to lower levels. you develop yourself based on your duty. Governors should govern the society according to this rule, finally, people enjoy the development and the nation develops. it is its illustration in the political level. The responsibility of government is to help people. I think it is also meaningful. Only in this way, the common people can be safe and rich, and the society can be harmonious and stable. so the ideal society in LaoZi's mind is a "small country with small population" we have seen this from tao te ching, so, here, I will not spend time repeating it. Therefore, Taoism requires letting things take their own course. Here, letting things take their own course does not mean doing nothing, it means that people choose to do some useful things, the main idea is respecting rules. the four aspect have few desires and be free and easy this actually the spiritual level in Taoism. In tao te ching there are words quiet is the rule of the world the meaning is that people should do nothing to achieve fame and wealth. the world runs regularly, the biggest reason for disasters is greed, so we should have little desire. When people face mundane fame and wealth, we should have a correct attitude, don't hunt for things through extreme ways. Interesting enough, in the previous period, there were such kind of news that some college students sold kidney for buying iPhone. I don't think it is a correct practice. of course, under the over development of modern economy, various kinds of behaviours such as pursuit fame and wealth and so on. It will do harm to people's mental and physical health, at last, it will do harm to the whole society. so ZhuangZi thinks that the world is this life, there is no previous life or hereafter. which is different from Buddhist's idea. it mainly stresses the pain coming from life rather than from the outside atmosphere. it is the element coming from your inner heart. of course, this statement is a little bit of extreme. of course, there are many outside factors causing this, but the ultimate factor is his own attitude. people having different economic conditions, having different knowledge levels, has his own happiness and sorrow, as long as he can find what he likes, he lives freely and happily. he can have high living quality. thus people have a healthy state. so we should try our best to overcome the factors causing the pain, and enjoying he happy life that is to say people have subjective wishes and desires but the real life can not necessarily satisfy this desire. therefore people feel pain from that, if we take out subjective desires, and accept the real life there can't be pains and tragedies. in fact, the free and easy we experienced is from the spiritual level. Xiaoyao that Zhuangzi referred to is the spiritual realm that can get rid of all the outside constraint and live freely. Zhuangzi calls him saint you can try to read ZhaungZi XiaoYaoYou. he illustrates many principles like this. because of the limitation of time, we will not introduce them one by one. the fifth point is that the principle of Tao is reversal. this kind of Taoist philosophical thought involves the transformation between Yin and Yang. Taoism underlines the importance of softness what does it mean? the repeated and circulatory movement is the movement concerning Tao. the function of Tao is subtle and weak. Laozi also said Good fortune lies within Bad, Bad fortune lurks within good. the meaning is that good fortune hide in misfortune, and maybe misfortune in good fortune. it is well known that in Chinese history there is a famous literary quotation, a blessing in disguise we can think about it, it in fact tells the same principle. so in medicine, this principle is the mutual transformation between yin and yang. when we talked about Yin and Yang, I showed you a picture, do you still remember what is it? it is eight diagrams. eight diagrams entails the concept of motivation and variation and dialectics thoughts. in Taoism, there is a concept that weakness overcomes firmness. in fact, speaking from the perspective of ideology, Confucianism upholds Yang, while Taoism upholds Yin. it holds that the weak side also has power, it can also defeat firmness, it is what is called Yin can overcome Yang. so combining these two in traditional Chinese medicine, it stresses the transformation of Yin and Yang it does not overstate one side. besides, Laozi once said having or not , difficult or easy supplement each other. length compares with each other, altitude depended on each other music and sound harmonize with each other, back and front follows each other. this states that things in the world are interdependent, they are not isolated. he said the A huge tree grows from a tiny seedling. the high platform is built by soil. He who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom. this illustrates that things develop from small to big and from quantitative change to qualitative change. this all contain the concept of motivation and variation. therefore, if we make a brief conclusion, we can see from the core concept in Taoist culture, the first one is respect Dao and De which is alright. the second one is love your life which stresses the importance of life. Then, what should we do to achieve this? we should have few desires. to have these concepts at the same time, it also mentions that you should not be afraid. softness an overcome hardness. if you have the concept of motion and variation, you will find you way of living. so what we have talked in this class is the core concept in Taoism culture, for the further development of traditional Chinese medicine, these core concepts have what kid of significance? in the next class, we will talk about Dao's influence in traditional Chinese medicine.
