中英雙語話中國歷史名人 第29期:老子

Lao Zi(571 B. C.~471 B. C.), famous Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, was born at Ku Prefecture (today's Luyi County of Henan Province) in the later years of the Spring and Autumn Period. His real name was Li Er and his courtesy name was Dan.

老子(公元前571年~公元前471年)，姓李，名耳，字聃，楚國苦縣(今河南鹿邑縣)人，生活時代約和孔子同時或略早，道家學派的創始人。

Lao Zi was an older contemporary of Confucius and once worked as an archivist in the imperial library of the Zhou Dynasty before he retired from public life. It is widely believed that he was the author of the Taoist scripture Lao Zi (also known as Tao Te Ching, or Dao De Jing, roughly translated as Book of the Way and Its Virtue). Slightly more than 5,000 characters, this book is considered as one of the most influential texts on Chinese philosophy and religion.

曾做過周朝守藏史，後退隱，作《老子》五千言，思想的核心是“道”。

The core of Lao Zi's thought is "Tao"(the Way ), by which he refered to the condition of the universe before the creation of the heaven and the earth. Therefore, it is from Tao that all the elements of the universe are derived. Reversal enables Tao to have a circular movement, that is, when the development of anything brings it to one extreme, a reversal to the other extreme takes place.

他把天地未生之前的渾沌狀態稱爲“道”，道是天地之根，天下之母，萬物的本源，道周而復始地運動着，其基本運動形式是“反者道之動”，即矛盾的對立面各向其相反的方向轉化。

Using Tao as the point of departure of his philosophy, Lao Zi believed that soft and weak overcome hard and strong (“Of all things yielding and weak in the world, none is more so than water. But for attacking what is unyielding and strong, nothing is superior to it.”). He upheld the idea of stillness and tranquility (“Attain utmost vacuity, hold fast to quietude.”) and suggested that only through “cleansing and purifying the distracting thoughts" can one understand one's true self. For him, it was more important to “see the simplicity, to realize one's true nature, to cast off selfishness, and to temper desire".

以“道”爲理論基礎，在人生觀上，老子貴無，尚柔，“天下莫柔於水，而攻堅強者莫之能勝”；主靜，“致虛極，守靜篤”；要對心靈“滌除玄鑑”，從而返自觀照內心的本明；要“見素抱樸，少私寡慾”，保持一顆赤子之心。

Lao Zi attached importance to the withdrawal in oneself, especially through the cultivation and regulation of mentality with one's own efforts.

老子執著於個體生命的自我保全，特別是精神狀態的自我調諧。

Politically, Lao Zi advocated ruling by non-action or inaction, on which he wrote that “I take no action and people are reformed. I enjoy peace and people become honest. I do nothing and people become rich. I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.” And “If you try to change it (the universe), you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it.” Lao Zi also took an anti-war stance: “Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them, except in the direst necessity.”

在政治觀上，老子主張無爲而治，“我無爲而民自化，我好靜而民自正，我無事而民自富，我無慾而民自樸”，“爲者敗之，知者失之。”反對戰爭，認爲“兵者，不祥之器，不得已而用之”。

The idealistic state in his description is naturalistic, even primitive and in isolation: “Let your community be small, with only a few people.”

老子的理想社會是自然原始、封閉隔絕的‘小國寡民”社會。

Lao Zi believed that the force behind the motion of the universe is overwhelming: “What is higher is pulled down, and what is lower is raised up; what is taller is shortened, and what is thinner is broadened; Nature's motion decreases those who have more than they need and increases those who need more than they have.”

在天道觀上，老子認爲，天是有意志的，天意決定一切。天意向善，同情弱者，損有餘而補不足，“高者抑之，下者舉之”。

Lao Zi's pursuit of vacuity and action through non-action echoes the reality of his time, a period torn by ceaseless wars among states. His philosophy reflects the exploration of an intellectual for the ultimate solution of the social order and individual freedom.

總之，老子清靜無爲的思想是時代的產物，在列國紛爭的春秋戰國時期，是對現實的一種澄清與批判，他的哲學觀反映了當時一部分知識分子對未來社會走向與治國方式的一種探索。