Internal Coherence Between Physical Concern And Metaphysical Inquiry :research On The Meaning Of The Dao And Its Power Of Laozi

Laozi,the book divided into two volumes with five thousand words,talks about the meaning of the Dao and its Power.It based on "Dao" and "De" and establishes a complete set of cosmology,outlook on life and values.The meaning of the Dao and its Power presented in this book involves the examination of human nature,the criticism of politics,and the historical reflection of culture,thus concentrating on the original understanding of "Dao" and "De".However,there are few special studies on the "the meaning of the Dao and its Power " of Laozi.After sorting out the existing results,we can find that the research on Laozi's " the meaning of the Dao and its Power " often lacks a coherent understanding.This defect is mainly manifested in the following two aspects: 1.People either focus on the metaphysical meaning of "Tao",or concentrate the ethical meaning of Laozi's morality theory.Although they affirmed that "Tao" and "De" both have metaphysical meaning,they often pay attention to the difference between the two and ignore the internal connection,showing a broken understanding of Laozi's " the meaning of the Dao and its Power ".2.There is a limit to using morality metaphysics to explain Laozi's "the meaning of the Dao and its Power ".The research aimed at exerting its normative role does not systematically demonstrated why Laozi's "Dao and its Power" has the possibility of guiding reality.The lack of coherent understanding of this issue directly manifested in the incomplete understanding of Laozi's " Dao and its Power",which is understood as the "half-cut" morality theory.More seriously,it reflects the deviations in the understanding of Laozi's central theme and ultimate concern,as well as the one-sided understanding of Laozi's thinking path.Aiming at the problems presented by the above understanding goals and understanding paths,the study of "the meaning of the Dao and its Power " presented in this article is,in terms of content,approaching the systematic meaning of Laozi's philosophical thinking as a whole,and is also an understanding of his ultimate concern.Therefore,this paper follows the idea of combining Laozi's physical concern with metaphysical inquiry,intending to experience Laozi's original understanding of morality in the systematic development of Laozi's "the meaning of the Dao and its Power".Specifically,a starting point,that is,a historical investigation of the text of Laozi.Take Laozi's analysis of the issues of the times and his attention to philosophical issues as the starting point of this paper.One principle is to keep the studying way of Laozi philosophy consistent with the thinking way of Laozi's philosophy.The perspective,that is,in the relationship between Heaven and human beings,from the overall perspective of the universe life.To explore Laozi's original understanding of morality.The main body of the paper develops a systematic discussion from five parts: the background of the times,the origin of thought,the way of thinking,the specific meaning,and the value of the meaning of Laozi's " the meaning of the Dao and its Power".The first part is to clarify Laozi's problematique,that is,Laozi's realistic care about people's living conditions after the world is out of order.Laozi took the reflection of the " the degeneration of morality"" as a clue to arouse the call for "Dao",so he went deep into the " the meaning of the Dao and its Power ",and then asked the ultimate source of reasonable order in the world.This is the historical interpretation and logical analysis of the reasons for the disorder of the world and the "loss of the great Dao",so as to extract the historical reasons of "the meaning of the Dao and its Power" of Laozi.In response to the time issue,Laozi explores "the meaning of the Dao and its Power".From the perspective of morality genetics,Laozi expresses the sigh of " Virtue emerges after the Tao is deprived " and believes that "the degeneration of morality" is the result of "loss of great Dao".From the perspective of political criticism,Lao Tzu arguments "the true Virtue is not moral ",thinking that "Zhou De",which needs to be "not lost",cannot surpass the limitations of clan kinship ethics and royal power politics,so it is the "intentional morality".On the one hand,Laozi used the reverse thinking and negation of "non-moral" to strip away artificial meaning of "Zhou De".On the other hand,from the perspective of the awakening of human nature,Laozi seeks the cosmology foundation for human morality,and points out the transcendence direction of "respect the Dao and value the Virtue".He asserts that "True Virtue" must conform to the nature of the way of Heaven,so he put forward the proposition that "Dao is the only way that the performance of Virtue to follow".The second part is to explore the thoughts origins of Laozi's " the Dao and its Power",that is,the transformation from history and shamanism to Taoism,and the transformation from the belief in destiny to the Heaven of the Nature.The historian's concept of Heaven and the wisdom of examining historical logic,as well as the dialectical thinking and the overall form of the universe life contained in the ancient scriptures of the Book of Changes,which enable Lao Tzu to transcend the relativity of the concepts of good and evil and jump out of the realm of value judgment of right and wrong.The question of Laozi is to question original content of morality.In other words,based on the fundamental roots of all things and the holistic vision of the universe life,Laozi's thinking on "morality" is not limited to the norms of due diligence determined by position or duty in the particular social relationship,but from the universe life as a whole begins to think about the meaning of individual existence.The third part to systematically explain the thinking path of Laozi's " the meaning of the Dao and its Power".From the three aspects of Laozi's thought premise,thinking path and thought motivation.It is demonstrated why Laozi's "the meaning of the Dao and its Power" can realize the connection of metaphysical inquiry and physical concern without becoming a "half-cut" morality theory.The fourth part explains the specific connotations of Laozi's " the meaning of the Dao and its Power",that is,discusses Dao,Virtue,Nature,and Wuwei one by one,and clarifies the relationship between these specific connotations,highlighting the pivotal position of "the meaning of the Dao and its Power " in Laozi's thought system.Specifically,we can understand Laozi's original thinking on morality from the following four interpretations: the relationship between Dao and everything,the interaction between Dao and Virtue,Nature and Wuwei,which as the core value and the realization method of “the meaning of the Dao and its Power” respectively.All above,in the systematic clarification of Laozi's " the meaning of the Dao and its Power",we first realized Laozi's original thinking on morality.On the basis of the reflection of "Zhou De",Laozi put forward the proposition that "Dao is the only way that the performance of Virtue to follow",realized the change from "morality" to "Virtue not moral",from the narrow sense of morality to the broad sense of Virtue.The return from concrete morality to original Virtue.Secondly,different from specific morals,Laozi's of "value the Maternal Root" unfolds the original thinking on "Dao and its Power",and is directed towards the foundational meaning of the world of "Wu" to the world of "being".Laozi placed the original content of morality and the true nature of man in the whole of the universe life,thinking about the value of man in the connection between all beings.That is to understand the true value of "man as man" in the relationship between Heaven and the human;in the relationship between "I" and "Myself",look for the unique content of "I";in the relationship between "I" and everything,to realize the true meaning of "gain" and "loss".Eventually,we found that Laozi's thinking about " the meaning of the Dao and its Power " realized the connection between the historical concern and the transcendence orientation.That is,the interaction of cosmology and the theory of life,and the organic combination of the principle of existence and the principle of ought to be,presented as a complete set of moral thought system.It is also Laozi's way of thinking that makes his original understanding of morality show the two-way characteristics of "the Heaven demonstrates and the people act in its way ".