When Confucius arrived in the state of Chu, the madman of the state of Chu walked in front of Confucius's door and sang: "Phoenix! Phoenix! Why is your virtue so decaying? The afterlife is not to be expected, and the past life is irretrievable. There is a way in the world, and a saint can achieve a career; There is no way in the world, and saints can only save their lives. In this day and age, all we want is to avoid being tortured. Happiness is lighter than a feather, but they do not know how to pluck it, and calamity is heavier than the earth, but they do not know how to avoid it. That's it! That's it! Show off yourself with virtue in front of people! Dangerous! Dangerous! Stick to one path and go down. O thorns! O thorns! Don't get in the way of my walking! Take a turn, go a turn, don't stab yourself in the foot! ”
"The Biography of Gao Shi" records that Chu Mad received public opinion with the name of Lu Tong, and the word received public opinion, Chu people. This passage is recorded in the Analects of Confucius and the Records of Confucius. It's just that Zhuangzi adapted it to express his views.
The Analects of the Prophet says:
Chu madness took the song and passed by Confucius and said: "Feng Xi Feng Xi, what is the decline of virtue? The past cannot be admonished, but the coming can still be chased. That's it, and now the politicians are gone! ”Most of the masters of Taoism live in seclusion, only because the decay of the world is irretrievable. The phoenix is an auspicious bird, and it will only come in the world of virtue and peace and prosperity. Zhuangzi used the mouth of Chu to talk to Confucius, and compared the phoenix to Confucius, which means:The world is declining like this, why do you try to change it? The peaceful and prosperous times of the past are gone, and there is no hope in the afterlife.Under Confucius, if you want to talk to it, you tend to refute it, but you can't talk to it.
If a person wants to achieve a career, he must have soil in order to grow fruits. In a situation like this, only life can be saved.
Confucius "knew that he could not do it", and wanted to turn the tide, but unfortunately he was born in the wrong era; Zhuangzi is "knowing that you can't do but not doing", which is a Taoist view. In an era of decay and decay, Confucius's idea was to restore the virtuous world of the past; In Zhuangzi's view, this is futile. He believed that Confucius had set a path of no return for himself. Sticking to one path is "drawing the ground and trending". This is not to say that we cannot stick to our beliefs, but that we must know how to advance and retreat, pursue advantages and avoid disadvantages, and stay away from the whirlpool.
This is the last fable of "Zhuangzi: The World", which ends in the form of a madman's mad song, and the final way to deal with the world can only be to escape, which is Zhuangzi's helplessness.
The fable is based on "Zhuangzi: The World").
*Internet. (Recommended reading: Zhuangzi Fables: Yan Hui Please Go.
Zhuangzi Fable: Ye Gong Qi.
Zhuangzi's fable: The mantis arm is used as a car.
Zhuangzi's Fables: The Use of Uselessness.
Zhuangzi's Fable: The Wood of the Wood.