After the teaching that day, Zhuangzi ordered Meng Zhong to stay, and then brought the latter to the warehouse with him, and found out his previous four articles, "Pian Thumb", "Horse Hoof", "Qiè", and "Dao Zhi" and "Zhí" he wrote in the past.

That's right, these four articles are all works by Zhuangzi to criticize Confucianism. You can imagine his resistance to Confucianism.

Let’s talk about “Pian Thumb” first. Pian Thumb means the toes combined with fingers, like the side fingers and attached tumors, they are all unnecessary things on the human body.

This article is roughly divided into four parts.

The first part is mainly to explain wisdom. Benevolence and righteousness and argument are like the "pinning thumbs" in the human body, both of which are unnecessary things that do not conform to their original nature;

The second part begins to attack Confucianism, criticize benevolence, righteousness, rituals and music, and point out the most righteous way of the world. It is better to "not lose the feelings of life without losing their true feelings", that is, to maintain the true feelings of nature, while "benevolence, righteousness" and "rituals and music" make "the world confused".

The third part further attacks the benevolence and righteousness of Confucianism, further pointing out that Confucianism's "promotion of benevolence and righteousness" is the root of chaos in the world. From the perspective of dying for external things, both gentlemen and villains "have lost their nature", so there is no difference.

It was not until the fourth part that Zhuangzi pointed out that everything is not good at doing, thus clarifying the social view of not doing benevolence and righteousness and not being lewd.

In fact, in the article "Pian Thumb", Zhuangzi only criticized Taoism at the end, while in the article "Horse Hoof", Zhuangzi further satirized Confucianism's behavior.

At the beginning of the article, Zhuangzi first explained the nature of a horse and its way of survival: hooves can be used to trample on frost and snow, hair can be used to resist wind and cold, eat grass when hungry, drink water when thirsty, and raise your hooves and feet to jump hard when you are sexually active. This is the nature of a horse.

When the Bo Le, who managed horses, came out of the world, burned horse hair with red iron tools, clenched horse hair with scissors, chiseled horse's hair, branded horse's marks, tied them with collars and trip ropes, and arranged them with a manger and a horse bed. In this way, the horse would die by two or three tenths; when hungry, they would not be given food, and when thirsty they would not be given drinks, they would be allowed to drive quickly, let them run quickly, let them run in a neat way, and let them move in a uniform manner, with restrictions on horse mouths and horse cord decorations in front, and with whips and bamboo strips behind, so that more than half of the horse would die.

However, for generations, people have praised Bole as "good at managing horses". [PS: This paragraph also gives examples of potters and carpenters, with similar intentions to Bole.]

Zhuangzi believed that the people had their own unchanging instincts and natures, weaving cloth and then dressing, farming and then eating. This is the common virtue and instinct of man.

People's thoughts and behaviors are integrated without any selfishness, which is called letting them be natural. Therefore, in the era when ancient people's nature is most perfect, people's actions always focus on nature. People live in the same way as beasts, and they gather and coexist with various species. How can they know about gentlemen and villains? Everyone is stupid and without wisdom, and human instincts and nature will not be lost; everyone is ignorant and selfless, which is called "su" and "simple".

When the saints appeared in the world, they reluctantly tried their best to pursue the so-called benevolence and righteousness, and then the world began to be confused and suspicious. The songs of indulging in pursuit of leisure and joy were made in a complicated and trivial way, and the world began to separate.

Destroying human nature to promote the so-called benevolence and righteousness is the sin of the (Confucian) saint!

When it comes to the article "Qiè", Zhuangzi's article became more intense, and even put forward the saying "The sage does not die, and the thief does not stop."

The example given in the article is "Tian family replaces Qi", that is, the incident of Tian Chengzi killing Qi Jun and stealing the country.

Tian Chengzi was "Tian Heng". His ancestors were the crown prince of Chen, who was the same as Song State, who was "Three Ke". After the fall of Chen State, Chen Wan fled to Qi State and served as a scholar under the tutelage of the Jiang surnamed Qi Jun. When Tian Heng was on the rebellion, Tian Heng plotted against rebellion, expelled Qi Jun and stole Qi State.

What is incredible is that people in the world, as well as other princes, including those of Confucian saints, have since recognized Tian Heng, as Qi Jun.

Those who steal trivial things like hooks will be executed, but Tian Heng, who stole the entire country, became a prince in justification. This is the origin of the allusion "those who steal the hooks will be punished, and those who steal the country will be marquis."

Zhuangzi satirized Confucianism in his article: (Confucianism) The sage warned us not to seek ill-gotten wealth, so those who steal valuable things such as belts must be punished (those who steal hooks must be punished); but the sage also stated that we should follow the heavens and respond to people and punish the people for their crimes. Therefore, those who succeed in "stealing the country" can use these high-sounding principles as excuses to establish and maintain the things he stole.

In other words, the saints are protecting and protecting these "big thieves". Therefore, if the saints do not die, the thieves will not stop.

Compared with the "Ziqian" attacks the saints whom Confucianism advocates benevolence and righteousness and praise. In the two films "Zhizhi" and "Fisherman", Zhuangzi directly began to attack Confucius, the founder of Confucianism.

Among them, "Daozhi" takes "Liu Xiaji" - the younger brother of Liu Xiahui, who "sits in his arms and keeps his heart unchallenged (who wraps a frozen beauty in his arms and keeps his heart unchallenged)" as the protagonist. He uses the dialogue between Zhan Zhi and Confucius to criticize Confucius, attacking Confucius and his thoughts as "smart and false", accusing the latter of "eating without farming, clothes without weaving, shaking his lips and tongues, and making trouble." [PS: I remember that the author of the book in Dawei also mentioned that Confucianism is like this: I know farming is important, but I will not do it, because I am a gentleman, a "scholar", a superior person, and farming is something that the inferior person does.]

Immediately, Confucius criticized Confucius for using King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou for governing the country (i.e., Zhou Li), and controlling public opinion in the world. He was determined to use your ideas to preach the descendants of future generations, wearing wide clothes and broad-minded Confucian clothes, speaking and acting pretentiously, to confuse the princes of the world. He wanted to use this method to pursue high officials and generous salaries. If you want to say that there is no big thief who is older than you - why didn't the world call you a thief, but actually called me a thief?

Then he satirized Confucius for his boasting but no achievements. Not only did he not be able to settle down, but his disciples did not have a good ending. At that time, Confucius was expelled from Lu twice, and was shoveled out of all his footprints in Wei State, forced to go desperately in Qi State, and was besieged between Chen State, Cai State, and could not accommodate the world. However, Confucius's proud disciple "Zilu" wanted to kill Wei Jun who usurped the rebellious, but he could not succeed, and he was chopped into meat sauce on the east gate of Wei State. [PS: To be honest, the Confucianism during Confucius' period was indeed

It is very empty. The whole article is touting benevolence and righteousness and praise saints, so it is never accepted by all countries. At most it is a golden signboard, and so is Mencius. Until later, Confucianism learned from the ideas of Taoism and Legalism, and finally began to make some achievements in governing the country. In addition, as the important Confucian idea of ​​governing the country, it was proposed by Zhuangzi and published in the "World Chapter" of "Zhuangzi", but it was borrowed by Confucianism, so that after Confucianism grew, many people thought that this was the first idea created by Confucianism.]

The article "Baozhi" is the most cruel article by Zhuangzi using the mouth of the thief Zhan Zhi, scolding Confucius and Confucianism, and almost completely denies the Confucianism proposed by Confucius.

[PS: In fact, there is also an article called "Fisherman" in the miscellaneous chapter of "Zhuangzi". With the mouth of a fisherman in the story, he was actually a nameless hermit, or the Taoist saint who was "nameless" advocated by Taoism, he criticized Confucianism more objectively. However, after looking carefully, the author did not feel like it was written by Zhuangzi, especially the secret writing of "Confucius finally expressed his sincere respect to the fisherman". With Zhuangzi's arrogance, he did not bother to take advantage of this. It should have been written by Taoist descendants for Zhuangzi, so the author did not add it.]

These four articles discuss about "Pian Thumb", which is divided into six bamboo slips; "Horse Hoof" is about seven hundred words, which is divided into four bamboo slips; "The Box" is about one thousand five hundred words, which is divided into eight bamboo slips; "The Box" is nearly four thousand words, which is divided into twenty-two bamboo slips.

In other words, the Zhuangzi gradually dug out, as many as forty bamboo slips.

"Master, you are..."

After moving all of the forty bamboo slips to the main house, Meng Zhong picked up a book at the command of Zhuangzi and flipped it out, but he happened to see the part where "Dou Zhi accused Confucius" and was stunned.

Immediately, he flipped through other bamboo slips.

In short, after he read all the books, he found that the discussions on these bamboo slips were used to attack Confucianism.

Why did he choose four articles to attack Confucianism?

He looked at Zhuangzi in confusion.

At this time, Zhuangzi wrote a few words on a bamboo plaque: What do you think?

『How do you view it? Does it mean how to view Confucianism?』

Meng Zhong thought about it and then recalled that when he was debating with his philosophers, he might have been inappropriate in his words and involved some Confucianism, which made this Taoist sage who had a very prejudice against Confucianism unswervingly.

"Teacher."

Meng Zhong bowed and said, "I know that the Master has prejudices against Confucianism, but I think that Confucianism may not be without merit."

"snort."

Zhuangzi snorted softly, with a slight slight contempt on the corner of his mouth raising his lips. Until Meng Zhong opened his eyes wide and looked at him in surprise, he immediately put away his contemptuous smile, with an expressionless expression on his face.

"It turns out that Master Zhuang would also show that expression..."

Meng Zhong was secretly surprised and said, "The Master accused Confucianism of "clever and false", but I think "clever and false" may not be bad... There was a man in Xue who was cowardly and afraid of trouble. One day, the Xue man took his children out and encountered a thief robbery on the road. The Xue man bravely stepped forward and helped the merchant expel the thief.

The businessman was very grateful and spread the story of Xue people everywhere and called him a warrior. After this incident was spread to Xue people's hometown, someone insider was surprised and asked Xue people privately: You are cowardly in your daily life, why are you so brave this time?

Xue Ren replied: My children were all by my side at that time. Do you want me to admit that their father was a coward?

...

In fact, the Xue man was still cowardly, but because his children were by his side, he had to pretend to be brave, but his "fake courage" behavior helped the businessman and prevented a bad thing from happening in the world."

“…”

Upon hearing this, Zhuangzi stroked his beard as if he was thinking.
Chapter completed!