In the beginning, a human being is just an animal. To be born, to survive, to return to dust — that is a whole life.
There is nothing particularly meaningful about it. It is only that human beings became enlightened, opened their minds, and learned to think.
Looking around at the four directions, looking up at the sky and down at the earth, people came to have a doubt: what is the meaning of life?
In fact many people never think about this question at all; they follow the crowd. But the “crowd” is also started by someone, and of the people behind it, the common folk “do not know that they exist”.
When the ancient sages “established a purpose for the people”, they were in fact talking about exactly this.
Birth, growth, marriage, procreation, nursing the young, caring for the old, enjoying one’s allotted years — these are the stages of a life;
Affection between father and son, righteousness between ruler and subject, distinct roles for husband and wife, proper order between elder and younger, trust between friends — these are the principles for handling the five relationships in one’s dealings with others.
The ancient sages were probably all “introverted” people. Anyone who follows the latest developments in modern psychology knows that “introverted” refers to the direction of one’s energy and the direction of one’s attention. Extroverts care about things in the outside world and enjoy themselves to no end. Introverts pay attention to their own inner world and have a strong capacity for self-examination and introspection; and it is because of that introspection that, as one member of the human race, a person will go on to ask: what meaning does life have?
People all say the ancients valued the rule of man, but I rather think that at that time the ancients were engaged in great debates and great discussions: what is the meaning of life? What should people live for? How should people live?
Every single classic is answering these questions.
I strongly recommend that anyone troubled by these questions about life reread the classics from this angle, or come into contact with the classics.
This is precisely why the classics can cross the long river of time without going out of date — what they answer is a question that never goes out of date at any time.
People say the Way scattered and became the hundred schools of thought. Why did the Way scatter? Because people’s intelligence and desires had both developed.
What is the Way (道)? The Way follows nature. The Way is the natural way of things; I always feel that the time when there was a Way was probably the time when humankind was still muddled and undifferentiated, not yet separated — or not fully separated — from the animals.
Humans who had gained wisdom would not follow nature, but rather obey their private inclinations.
One point must be noted here: the Way did not come into being only in Laozi’s time; Laozi attained the Way by reading widely in the books of high antiquity. Nor was ritual propriety (礼) put forward by Confucius — Confucius revered the Rites of Zhou, and ritual propriety was already very well developed in the Zhou dynasty. So the dates of both the Way and ritual propriety have to be pushed back a very long way.
Humans went from a scattered existence to living in groups, and the groups kept growing larger. How should people get along with one another? How can conflict and clashes be reduced?
“A Code of Conduct for Getting Along” is probably the modern name for the Book of Rites (《礼》).
Once there was ritual propriety, some people observed it and some did not, and so law was born.
The Way of nature is one and only one; but once people had cleverness and cunning, the roads became countless, there was neither law nor heaven, and people did whatever they pleased.
Ritual propriety points the way to the right path, and law escorts ritual propriety. That is why Chinese law unites ritual and law, and has an aim — and is not like the contract as people understand it today, where no matter whether the contents are fair, as long as you have signed it you must do as the contract says.
Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets: that is a returning to and guarding of nature. The core socialist values define modern ritual propriety. Law-based governance in all respects is the legal guarantee.
The threads of the Way, ritual propriety and law are clearly visible.
And the most essential thing behind it all is that cultural confidence has returned to the Chinese perspective.
Society provides an environment of living together in harmony.
Meaning, however, each person still has to seek for themselves.