[sic]:
The avenue is wasted, and there is benevolence and righteousness. Wisdom comes out, and there is great hypocrisy. Six relatives are not in harmony, and there is filial piety. The country is in turmoil, and there are loyal ministers.
[Translation]:
After the avenue was abandoned, there was the so-called benevolence and righteousness. After the appearance of ingenuity and cleverness, there was serious fraud. The disharmony between family members led to the so-called filial piety. The country's politics fell into a stupor, and only then did the so-called loyal ministers have been created.
In this chapter, Lao Tzu applies dialectics to the realm of social life.
He pointed out that there is a relationship between the great road and benevolence, wisdom and hypocrisy, the discord between the six relatives and filial piety, and the chaos of the state and the loyal ministers.
Lao Tzu believes that when the party rulers lose morality and morality, problems such as benevolence, hypocrisy, filial piety, and loyalty will appear.
If the avenue is universal, every family has filial sons, and everyone is loyal and trustworthy, then we don't need to emphasize benevolence and righteousness!
If people themselves are simple and kind, and do not pursue wisdom, there will be no hypocrisy! If family members live in harmony with each other, there is no need to emphasize the filial piety of the father and the son!
If the country's politics are clear and honest, there will be no loyalty and treachery! It is precisely because the Great Dao cannot be universally practiced in the world that people go their own way, even doing whatever they want, that there is a call for benevolence and righteousness.
With the development of wisdom and scheming, people become more and more scheming, and so is hypocrisy and deception. The collapse of etiquette and the breakdown of family affection will make us deeply feel the preciousness of filial piety and fatherly kindness, and will artificially instill the idea of filial piety.
When a country is in chaos and the rulers have lost their statecraft, it is time for loyal ministers to step up and save the country from danger.
This situation is reminiscent of a passage by Jia Baoyu in Dream of Red Mansions, which can also be used as a commentary to this chapter. He said: "Everyone will die, as long as they can die decently."
Those who have only heard that the two ways of death are the real manly festivals, "Wen Death Advice" and "Martial Death Battle", but they only care about nonsense.
They know that only the faint king will have the ministers of death, and only if the country is not guaranteed will there be ministers of the death war, they only care about the pursuit of fame and try their best to die, but they have not thought about what will happen to the country in the future?
There will inevitably be wars, there will be death-and-death wars, and they only care about their personal merits, desperately dying, without thinking about where the future of the country lies? ”
Baoyu means that if only Wenchen dies because of advice, it means that the monarch is mediocre; If only the generals died in battle, it means that the state cannot protect the monarch.
In fact, there is also a saying among the people: "A poor family produces a filial son, and the country is in turmoil to show loyal ministers." In the eyes of ordinary people, benevolence, righteousness and morality, wisdom and strategy, filial piety and fatherhood, loyalty and courage are the precious wealth of the country, the pillar of society, and the core of value.
Lao Tzu, on the other hand, believes that it is natural for people to live in harmony, help each other, and share a good life.