After the day's teaching, Zhuangzi ordered Meng Zhong to stay, and immediately took the latter to the treasury, from which he turned out his previous treatises: "Pián (Pián)拇", "Horseshoe", "胠 (qū) 箧 (qiè)", and "Thief (zhí)".

That's right, these four treatises are all works by Zhuangzi attacking Confucianism, and it is conceivable that he resisted Confucianism.

Let's talk about "The Thumb" first, the thumb is the toe that merges the fingers, and the distorted fingers and attached tumors are all superfluous things on the human body.

This article is roughly divided into four parts.

The first part is mainly to explain that wisdom, righteousness, and argument are like "thumbs" on the human body, which are superfluous things that do not conform to nature.

The second part begins to attack Confucianism, criticizing benevolence and etiquette, and pointing out that the best way in the world is to "not lose the love of life", that is, to maintain the true feelings of nature, while "benevolence" and "etiquette" make "the world confused".

The third part further attacks the Confucian principle of benevolence and righteousness, and further points out that Confucianism's "flaunting benevolence and righteousness" is the bane of the world, and from the perspective of martyrdom for foreign things, there is no difference between a gentleman and a villain.

It was not until the fourth part that Zhuangzi pointed out that it is better to do anything than not to do anything, thus clarifying the social view that it is neither benevolent nor obscene.

In fact, in the article "The Thumb", Zhuangzi only criticized Taoism to the point, and in the chapter "Horseshoe", Zhuangzi further satirized the behavior of Confucianism.

At the beginning of the text, Zhuangzi first explained the nature of horses and their way of survival: hooves can be used to trample on frost and snow, hair can be used to resist wind and cold, hungry to eat grass, thirsty to drink water, raise hooves and feet to jump hard, this is the nature of horses.

When there was a man in charge of horses, he burned the horse's hair with red-hot iron, trimmed the horse's hair with scissors, chiseled the horseshoe armor, branded the horse's mark, tied them with thorns and tripwires, and arranged them with mangers and beds, so that the horses were dead twenty-three or tenths of the timers; If they are hungry and do not give them anything to drink, let them gallop quickly, let them run rapidly, let them walk in order, let them move in uniformity, with the restrictions of the horse's mouth and the decoration of the horse's mouth in front, and the threat of leather whips and bamboo strips in the back, so that more than half of the horses will die.

However, there have been people who have praised Bole for being "good at managing horses". [PS: This paragraph also gives examples of potters and carpenters, and the intention is similar to Bole. 】

Zhuangzi believes that the common people of Li have their inherent and unchanging instincts and instincts, weaving cloth and then dressing, cultivating and then eating, which is the common virtue and instinct of all people.

People's thoughts and actions are integrated without a little partiality, which is called letting things be. Therefore, in the era when the nature of the ancients was most perfect, people's actions were always so natural, people and beasts lived together, and coexisted with various things, where do you know what gentlemen and villains are! If everyone is stupid and unintelligent, human instinct and nature will not be lost; Everyone is ignorant and has no selfish desires, which is called "plain" and "simple".

When there was a saint in the world, who reluctantly pursued the so-called benevolence and righteousness, confusion and suspicion began to appear in the world. The indulgent pursuit of pleasure and the complicated and trivial formulation of rituals and laws led to the separation of the world.

It is the sin of a (Confucian) sage to destroy man's natural nature in order to promote so-called benevolence and righteousness!

In the article "胠 (qū) 箧 (qiè)", Zhuangzi's essay became more intense, and even put forward the saying that "the saint does not die, and the great thief does not stop".

The example given in the article is "Tian Dai Qi", that is, Tian Chengzi killed Qi Jun and stole his country.

Tian Chengzi is "Tian Heng", his ancestor is the same as the Song State is the "three Ke" of the prince of the Chen State "Chen Wan", after the destruction of the Chen State, Chen Wan fled to the Qi State, and served as a scholar under the Jiang surname Qi Jun, and when the Tian Heng period, Tian Heng plotted against the rebellion, chased Qi Jun and stole the Qi State.

And it is unbelievable that the people of the world and the rest of the princes, including those saints of Confucianism, have since recognized Tian Heng, the monarch of Qi.

Those who steal such a trivial thing as a hook will be executed, but Tian Heng, who stole the entire country, has rightly become a prince, which is the origin of the allusion "the one who steals the hook is punished, and the one who steals the country is marquis".

In his text, Zhuangzi satirizes Confucianism: The (Confucian) sage warned us that we should not covet ill-gotten gains, so those who steal worthless things such as belts must be punished (those who steal hooks are punished); But the saint also said that he should obey the heavens and the people, so that those who succeed in "stealing the country" can use these high-sounding truths as an excuse to establish and maintain what they have stolen.

In other words, the saints are protecting and protecting these "thieves", so the saints do not die, and the thieves do not stop.

Compared with the attack on the benevolence and righteousness flaunted by Confucianism and the sage who is admired, Zhuangzi directly began to attack Confucius, the originator of Confucianism.

Among them, "Thief" takes "Yanagi Xia Ji", that is, the younger brother of Yanagi Hui who "sits still in his arms and does not mess up (wraps the frozen beauty in his arms to keep her warm and his mind is not disturbed)", as the protagonist, and uses the dialogue between Zhan and Confucius to make a series of attacks on Confucius, attacking Confucius and his thoughts as "clever and hypocritical", accusing the latter of "eating without ploughing, dressing without weaving, shaking his lips and tongue, and being good at right and wrong". [PS: I remember that the author of the book Da Wei also mentioned that Confucianism is like this: I know that farming is very important, but I won't do it, because I am a gentleman, a "scholar", and a superior person, and farming is something that inferior people do. 】

Immediately, he criticized Confucius for using the statecraft of King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou to control public opinion in the world, and he was bent on using your ideas to preach future generations, wearing Confucian clothes with wide clothes and belts, and speaking and acting pretentiously to confuse the princes of the world.

Then he sarcastically ridiculed Confucius for his rhetoric but without any merit, not only could he not live in peace, but even his disciples did not have a good end - at that time, Confucius was expelled from the state of Lu twice, he was shoveled off all his footprints in the state of Wei, he was cornered in the state of Qi, and he was besieged between the state of Chen and Cai, and could not accommodate the world; And Confucius's proud disciple "Zilu" wanted to kill the usurping Wei Jun but could not succeed, and he himself was chopped into meat sauce on the east gate of Weiguo. [PS: To be honest, Confucianism in the Confucian period is indeed very empty, and the whole article is to flaunt benevolence and righteousness and respect sages, so it has never been accepted by other countries, at most it is a golden signboard, and Mencius is too. It was not until later that Confucianism borrowed the ideas of Taoism and Legalism, and finally began to make some achievements in governing the country. In addition, as an important Confucian idea of governing the country, the "inner sage and outer king" was put forward by Zhuangzi and contained in the "Tianxia Chapter" of "Zhuangzi", but it was borrowed by Confucianism, so that after Confucianism grew stronger, many people thought that this was the first thought of Confucianism. 】

"Thief" is the most ruthless article in which Zhuangzi scolded Confucius and Confucianism through the mouth of the thief, and almost completely denied the Confucianism put forward by Confucius.

[PS: In fact, there is also a "Fisherman" in the miscellaneous chapters of "Zhuangzi", which criticizes Confucianism more objectively through the mouth of a fisherman in the story, who is actually an anonymous hermit, or the kind of Taoist sage who is admired by Taoists as "sages without names". But the author took a closer look, and it really didn't feel like it was written by Zhuangzi, especially the allusion in the text that "Confucius finally expressed his sincere respect to the fisherman", with the arrogance of Zhuangzi, he didn't bother to take advantage of this at all, it should be written by a Taoist descendant pseudo-Zhuangzi, so the author didn't add it. 】

These four treatises, "The Thumb" is about 1,200 words, divided into six volumes of bamboo slips; "Horseshoe" is about 700 words, divided into four volumes of bamboo slips; "Xuan Zheng" is about 1,500 words, divided into eight volumes of bamboo slips; "The Thief" is nearly 4,000 words and is divided into 22 volumes of bamboo slips.

In other words, Zhuangzi gradually turned out, a total of as many as forty bamboo slips.

"Master, ...... you?"

After moving all the forty bamboo slips to the main house, Meng Zhong picked up one volume at random at the suggestion of Zhuangzi and flipped through it, but he happened to turn to the part of "stealing and accusing Confucius", and he couldn't help but be stunned.

Immediately, he flipped through the other bamboo slips.

All in all, after he had read all the books, he found that the treatises on these bamboo slips were all used to attack Confucianism.

Why do you choose four treatises that attack Confucianism?

He looked at Zhuangzi in bewilderment.

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

"What do you think?" How do you think about Confucianism?'

Meng Zhong thought about it, and then recalled that when he was debating with Zhuzi just now, his words may have been a little inappropriate, involving some Confucianism, which made this Taoist sage who had great prejudices against Confucianism unswerving.

"Master."

Meng Zhong arched his hand and said, "I know that the master has a lot of prejudices against Confucianism, but I think that Confucianism is not necessarily without merit. ”

"Hmph."

Zhuangzi snorted lightly, the corners of his mouth slightly raised to reveal a little contempt, and it was not until Meng Zhong stared at him in surprise with wide eyes that he immediately put away his somewhat contemptuous smile, and his face was expressionless.

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

Meng Zhong was secretly surprised, and said: "The master accused Confucianism of 'clever hypocrisy', but I think that 'clever hypocrisy' is not necessarily bad. …… There was once a person in Xue Di who was cowardly and afraid of things. One day, when the Xue people went out with their children, they encountered a thief robbing a merchant on the way, and the Xue man stepped forward bravely to help the merchant expel the thief.

The merchant was very grateful and spread the deeds of the Xue people everywhere, calling them warriors. After this matter reached the township of the Xue people, some insiders were very surprised, and asked the Xue people in private: You are usually cowardly, why are you so brave this time?

Xue Ren replied, "My children were all with me at that time, do you want me to admit that their father was a coward?"

……

In fact, this Xue man is still cowardly, but because his children are around, he has to pretend to be brave, but his "pseudo-brave" behavior helps the merchant and prevents an evil thing from happening in the world. ”

“……”

Hearing this, Zhuangzi stroked his beard thoughtfully.