A Study On Feng Youlan’s Early Laozi Thought

Feng Youlan’s early Laozi thoughts mainly refers to Feng Youlan’s research on laozi thought in the Republic of China.In Feng Youlan’s opinions,Laozi was a contemporary thinker with Confucius.The book Laozi was written in the Warring States Period,but it was not written by Laozi alone,it retained the elements of Laozi’s thought.Feng Youlan studied the thought of Laozi in his works such as “The Theory of Human and Heaven’s Gains and Losses”、“History of Chinese Philosophy”、“Six Books of Zhenyuan” and “ A Brief History of Chinese Philosophy”.These research results constituted Feng Youlan’s early Laozi thoughts.Feng Youlan’s early study of Laozi thought,which mainly includes four parts.First of all,the philosophical research on The Tao of Laozi mainly includes three aspects.On the one hand,Feng Youlan thinks that Tao and De constitute the fundamental concept of Laozi and Taoist philosophy.He explains the nature of individual with the nature of Tao.Tao is the nature of all things,while De inherits Tao and is the nature of all things.Therefore,when it comes to human society,Feng Youlan believes that Laozi is opposed to the constraints imposed by various etiquette and systems on people’s behaviors and thoughts.When it comes to individuals,Laozi is also opposed to individuals’ deliberate pursuit of knowledge and utility.On the other hand,Feng Youlan focuses on the analysis of the concept of “being” and“nothing” when he discusses the Tao of Laozi.First,from the perspective of the body of Tao and the use of Tao,“being” and “nothing” in Laozi are discriminated.Second,Feng Youlan tells the relationship between “existence and non-existence” of Tao from the generative theory.Thirdly,Feng Youlan discussed the order of being and nothing in Laozi.In the end,Feng Youlan thinks Laozi is the thought that go out of the secularity was born again.He takes“extremely brilliant” and “the doctrine of the Mean” as measuring standards: Laozi’s doctrine is “beyond image” and “extremely brilliant”,but not divorced from daily life,so “the doctrine of the Mean”.The second part is Feng Youlan’s early study of Laozi’s life philosophy which mainly reflected in three aspects: “Doing Nothing” and “Preserving Truth”,“Knowing Chang Yue Ming” and “Modesty,Chong and Thrift”.Feng Youlan put forward the concept of “Doing Nothing and Keeping the Truth”,which mainly refers to people’s selflessness and lack of desire and sincerity towards others from the social and individual levels.Secondly,Feng Youlan believes that the “Knowledge of the Common” in Laozi is the reflection of The“Ming”.He believes that the “Knowledge of the Common” can be tolerant,and the ability not to be burdened by daily trifles is the manifestation of the “Ming”.In addition,Feng Youlan regarded “Knowing Constant” as a way of adjusting human sense,that is,he called“Adjusting Common Sense”.Knowing constant can correctly deal with people’s emotional stimulation from happiness,sorrow and joy,and look at the pursuit of fame and wealth in the secular world,and to a certain extent,abandon human lust.The third part is Feng Youlan’s early narrative research on the ideal world of Laozi mainly discusses from three aspects: ideal personality,ideal society and evaluation of the ideal world of Laozi.As for the ideal personality,Feng Youlan thinks that “infants” and “fools”are the most consistent with the requirements of the ideal personality in Laozi.First,the desires of infants are extremely simple,which are closer to the natural world of Tao than adults.Second,Feng Youlan divides the "fool" into three aspects: “I fool”,“fool people” and“sage fool”.these three kinds of fools are the way to realize the ideal personality of adults.As for the ideal society,Feng Youlan believes that the ideal society in Laozi is closest to the natural realm.In the ideal society,people do not know the concepts of good,evil and right,but do good deeds such as “benevolence,justice and morality” virtually.Feng Youlan does not fully agree with the ideal personality and ideal society in Laozi.First of all,he analyzed the views of Confucianism and Taoism on man and nature from the philosophy of “loss and Taoism” and “Benefit and Taoism”,and concluded that the “Man” of the so-called Laozi thought is also the expression of nature.Secondly,from the perspective of social survival and social responsibility,Feng Youlan thinks that the ideal life in Laozi is not realistic.Thirdly,Feng Youlan believes that Laozi emphasizes “ignorance without desire”,and the ideal personality and ideal society are also the subjective embodiment of Laozi,which shows that Laozi itself is “knowing” and “wanting”.Finally,Feng Youlan’s early comparative study of “Laozi” and “Yizhuan” mainly compares the virtues of Tao and the nature of Tao,the extreme of things,and his attitude towards modesty.First,Feng Youlan compared the tao’s virtue in Laozi with the Tao’s nature in Yizhuan.The biggest difference between the two is the “virtue” in Laozi and the “nature”in Yizhuan.Second,Feng Youlan holds that both Laozi and Yizhuan are similar in their views on the principle of “moderation”,but their differences lie in the content of “opposition”.Thirdly,Feng Youlan believes that Laozi and Yizhuan have the same attitude towards life and the way of getting along with each other.They both take gentleness and humility as their self-cultivation and way of dealing with the world.