Original text: "The five colors are blinding, the five tones are deafening, and the five are refreshing." Galloping and hunting, it is maddening, and it is a rare commodity that makes people do it. It is not the goal of the saint's belly, so he goes to the other and takes this. ”
Qingping Interpretation.
The human eye can see the colorful world, the ears can hear the five tones, and the mouth can taste the five flavors. Beauty, beauty and food, these are the things that most people chase in their lives, but Lao Tzu knows that the ** of these foreign objects is the root of disturbing human nature, and they will make people "blind", "deaf" and "refreshing". At that time, the "galloping hunting" and "rare goods" pursued by the nobles would make "people's hearts crazy" and "behave". In the end, Lao Tzu asked people to abandon the ** of dogs and horses and return to the simple nature of nature.
1] "The five colors are blinding".
In ancient times, the five colors of blue, red, white, black and yellow were the positive colors. Theoretically, it is possible to create a variety of other colors from five colors. Sun Xingyan Shu: "Five colors, the east is called green, the south is called red, the west is called white, the north is called black, the sky is called Xuan, the earth is called yellow, and the Xuan is black, so the six have yellow and no Xuan for the five." Lao Tzu's "five colors" here generally refers to the fact that the eyes can see various colors.
If "five colors are blinding" is said to be dazzling, in fact, this does not understand the original meaning of Lao Tzu. The eye can see the color, this is the instinct of the eye, and the sin is not in the eye;In the face of the five colors, the eyes will be confused, and the sages will not, so the cause of the disaster cannot be attributed to the five colors;The root cause is that people's hearts are not well connected. People always can't see others as better than themselves, and they want good things when they see them. If you can't compare with others, you will be jealous, and if you can't get something, you will be troubled. Therefore, the "five colors" mentioned by Lao Tzu here are not the five colors in a nutshell, but refer to the feelings that people have in the face of the external environment. "Blindness" is not simply dazzling, but refers to the loss of one's nature in the face of a colorful world. In your eyes, there is no good or bad in the world, but you have joys, sorrows, and sorrows. Everything you see is a choice of the heart, and you see that others are better than you, or that others are saying that you are better than them. Right and wrong are born in the heart, and the evil is your own doing, but you are "blind" and yourself, do not complain about the sky, do not worry about the earth, only by returning your heart to the nature of quiet and inaction, can you get a lifetime of free happiness.
2] "The five tones are deafening".
The five tones refer to the palace, Shang, horn, sign, and feather. In terms of kings, ministers, people, things, and things, the palace is the king, the merchant is the minister, the horn is the people, the levy is the thing, and the feather is the thing. Singing and there are images, so it is said that the body of the monarch and the minister is also. The sound of "palace" is the lord of the five tones, the king of the five tones, and the commander of all the sounds. "The Book of Rites and Music" said: "The palace is chaotic and desolate, and its monarch is arrogant;."Business chaos is in trouble, and its officials are bad;The horns are worried, and the people are resentful;If you are in turmoil, you will mourn, and you will be diligent;The feather chaos is dangerous, and its wealth is scarce. "In "Lingshu Evil Guest", the five tones of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, and Yu are matched with the five organs: the spleen should be the palace, and its voice is diffuse and slow;The lungs should be quotient, and their voices should be cleared;The liver should be horned, and its voice is long;The heart responds, and its voice is eloquent;The kidney should be feathered, and its voice is deep and thin, which is the positive sound of the five organs.
The pentatonic tone is deafening. The five tones here refer to all sounds, and this sentence literally means that the noisy tones are easy to hurt the ears. But this explanation is not the true connotation that Lao Tzu wants to express. We need to understand the meaning of what Lao Tzu said, and we need to understand the background of Lao Tzu's argument. In the Spring and Autumn Period in which Lao Tzu lived, the social system alternated between the old and the new, the social order was turbulent, and the aristocratic life was rotten and erosive. The working people are industrious all their lives but can't eat enough, and those nobles don't know the grains, but they spend all day long silk and satin, brocade clothes and jade food, flowers and flowers, singing and dancing. Lao Tzu is not aimed at the basic life needs of ordinary people such as food, beauty, and music, but an exhortation and warning to those slave owners and aristocrats who indulged in lust at that time. Lao Tzu hopes that people will not be confused by beautiful sounds and beautiful women.