This document is for friends who are reading the Tao Te Ching for the first time!
Tao Te Ching is a profound and unpretentious classic, and the slightest carelessness in learning will deviate. Many of the concepts and ideas in the Tao Te Ching are not admonishing, but guiding. He reminded people to follow the laws of nature in everything they do, and not to go against the laws of nature. Otherwise, there will be retaliation or punishment. But in reality, many people, driven by desire, often do not make sense in the world.
The Tao Te Ching is guiding everyone's life path.
The mentality that should be maintained in interpreting the Tao Te Ching. Keep a normal mindset and don't interpret with a mindset of blind worship. At any time, we should never forget that Lao Tzu is a human being, not a god, and believe that the wisdom and IQ of people more than 2,500 years ago should not be much higher than that of modern people, but they are more simple, more real, and more credible than modern people.
In the process of interpretation, overconfidence must make mistakes, and too humility must not be able to interpret thoroughly. It is necessary to insist on understanding from the viewpoint of objective reality, and the interpretation should be as close to the original meaning as possible. It is necessary to carefully figure out what the meaning of Lao Tzu is when he uses this word. Don't interpret it word by word, resulting in inconsistencies and logical incomprehension. It is necessary to interpret the meaning of the context and context. First of all, we must basically understand what this chapter is talking about, what this paragraph is talking about, and finally we can decipher what this sentence is talking about. Don't make the simple truth too advanced and complicated. Don't just do the play of adding branches and leaves, and don't just follow your own preferences and far-fetched rigid routines. Any deepening, mystifying, or even mystifying the Tao Te Ching should be inappropriate. Try not to blindly use the achievements of fields that we are not familiar with or the events of past history to corroborate, and be good at reverse thinking.
The Tao Te Ching was written more than 2,500 years ago. At that time, it was still the era of bamboo lettering, and the process of writing the book should also be like gold. At that time, there were not as many Chinese characters as modern Chinese characters, and the meaning of each word was not as rich as modern ones, so only a few words could be used to imply profound truths. In ancient Chinese, many words can represent a word, so the basic meaning is mainly the meaning of a single word, and it is rare to have more than two words and phrases. Some words are easy for high-level, or overconfident, people to interpret them as they are taken for granted without thinking deeply about rigorous arguments. They may not have imagined that it must be very old, and the ancient meaning of many words is far from the modern meaning. When you study it carefully and verify it carefully, you will find that the meaning of individual words is very different from the meaning of the same word in modern times. Therefore, we must carefully consider almost every word in the Tao Te Ching, word by word, and trace the earliest original meaning of each word. The meaning of the words should be understood as much as possible in the era when Lao Tzu wrote the book, and due to the changes of the times, the meaning of many words has changed greatly. In ancient texts, each word has many meanings, and it is necessary to strive to ensure that the meaning of the words is basically in line with the original meaning of the time. With the changes of the times, some seemingly natural meanings have been very different from modern meanings, or even opposite.
The premise of interpreting the Tao Te Ching is to consult a large number of materials, listen to many relevant lectures, learn from hundreds of opinions, and an indispensable tool is a dictionary.
Xu Shen's Shuowen Jie Zi is the earliest dictionary in China, containing more than 9,000 Chinese characters, while the total number of modern Chinese characters is about 90,000, a difference of more than 10 times.
In the process of interpretation, it is necessary to carefully consult dictionaries such as "Shuowen Jie Zi", "Ancient Chinese Dictionary" and "Modern Chinese Dictionary", the purpose of which is to find out the true meaning of the words, so as to interpret them as accurately as possible. There are a few principles to follow when looking up the meaning of a word. When there is a difference in the meaning of the same word in "Shuowen Jiezi" and "Ancient Chinese Dictionary", the interpretation of "Shuowen Jiezi" shall prevail; Words that are not in the "Shuowen Jie Zi" shall be subject to the interpretation of the "Ancient Chinese Dictionary"; Neither of them can find the word to be checked, and can only refer to the interpretation of the "Modern Chinese Dictionary".
In the interpretation, when it is necessary to give play, we should try to follow the original intention of Lao Tzu 2,500 years ago on the premise of strictly controlling the scale of the ancient original meaning, and appropriately add a small amount of our own understanding and play. But never high, never excessive, never imposed!
The interpretation and understanding of the Tao Te Ching are very different, and it is difficult to say which one is accurate.
It is almost impossible to fully interpret and understand Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. For example, there are certain passages in the Tao Te Ching that we may never be able to figure out, unless Lao Tzu and his old man reappear. This confirms that "my life has an end, and there is no end to knowledge." With an end, there is no end, and it is gone! The truth of this sentence. Therefore, on the basis of a preliminary understanding of the original meaning of the Tao Te Ching, we can only rely on enlightenment.
For some vague concepts, don't try to explain Lao Tzu, and don't take your own understanding as Lao Tzu's meaning. In fact, many points of view can only be your own understanding, and cannot represent Lao Tzu. Don't interpret it according to your own preferences, and don't mix in your preferred opinions. It is not advisable to interpret or evaluate the Tao Te Ching in extremely exaggerated and worshipful language, which should go against Lao Tzu's original intention of writing the Tao Te Ching.
Only by interpreting the original text of the Tao Te Ching to the point that it is basically in line with the original meaning, can we expand and play on this basis, and make the expansion and play more reliable. As for how to use the topic to expand, that is a matter of the benevolent and the wise and the wise.
Finally, I would like to highlight a few points that friends should pay attention to. First, don't interpret it with a blind worship mentality, and don't forget that Lao Tzu is a human being, not a god. Second, when you need to give examples to illustrate some concepts and ideas in the Tao Te Ching, don't be far-fetched. Third, it is necessary to interpret it as close as possible to the historical background of the time. Fourth, we firmly believe that most of the concepts and ideas are of practical significance. Fifth, the purpose of interpretation should be simple and the attitude should be correct.
The Tao Te Ching should be a classic that we can't understand all our lives.