The paragraph "Gods and Witches Look at Appearance" in the last part of Zhuangzi's inner chapter seems to be disconnected from the whole article, not about "the rule of the emperor", and it is a bit off-topic. It's just like "Ding Ding Solving the Cow" in it, which is a little out of place with the whole article.

In fact! The style of these two articles is the same. It may seem irrelevant, but they all have a certain metaphorical meaning. If you understand the metaphor, you won't feel disconnected from the whole article. Opposite! You'll feel so perfect.

There are too many people in history who have interpreted these two articles incoherently. They can't get together, they can only talk nonsense. Or! Talking and flirting with their knowledge, in the end, it can only prove that they have read a lot of books. But another point is exposed: no matter how many books they read, they may not know much about it.

If they don't understand the Tao, they can only talk nonsense.

As mentioned earlier, the "Ku Ding Solving Cow" in "Cooking" is not only about cattle, but about social relations. When we understand the nature of social relations, we will be able to "move with ease" in society and be able to maintain our health better.

And the paragraph of "Gods and Witches Look at Appearance" is about acting! If life is compared to a big drama, is it a TV series? So! This TV series is interpreting a person's life or "half life".

Half a lifetime! He died before he lived to the end of his life. is a lifetime in his own life drama, and only a few episodes are performed in other people's life dramas.

Of course! This is interpreted in modern language. During the Warring States period, there were no TV dramas, only short dramas of song and dance, and courtesans danced in front of kings and hereditary nobles. Or! At the time of the sacrifice, some rituals are performed or something.

In a word! This passage of "Gods and Witches Look at Appearance" is telling us: different mentalities and moods, our lives are different, and the impressions we leave on others are different.

To put it more bluntly: our outlook on life is different, our life is different, and the way we behave and do things is different. Each of us has a different perspective on life, and as a result, the world becomes rich and chaotic.

The root cause of social chaos is that our outlook on life is confused, there is no unity, and it is all wrong. So! Society is in chaos.

It is useless to unify the outlook on life, and even if the outlook on life is unified, it is still wrong. It's just good for some people, and not for others.

For example, Confucianism. Confucianism has dominated Chinese culture for more than 2,000 years, and society is just as chaotic. To be able to maintain relative stability for decades is remarkable.

A doctrine that does not solve the philosophy of life can only be called "coping thought", a way to deal with real world affairs, a quack medical thought that treats headaches and pains. What is always solved is only the problem of social reality and appearance. And not the fundamental problem of man, not the philosophical question.

Without solving the problem of the philosophy of life, there will never be peace in human society. Peace exists, but it is always short-lived compared to the long course of history. Decades of peace, in the face of the long river of history, the ashes are gone.

Straight to the point.

The god and witch Ji Xian can look at the face, and Liezi thinks that this person is amazing, so he wants to change the door and worship others as teachers. But! Liezi is an honest man, so he told the teacher about it. The pot said Liezi for a while, and then asked Liezi to bring this person over to show him his face, so that Liezi could see the master's skills.

Liezi brought the witch Ji Xian to show the teacher, and he also wanted to see and compare, who is the most capable.

The god witch Ji Xian showed Liezi's teacher pot a total of four times, and the last time he ran away. I feel that I have met a master, and I dare not show off anymore. Or! I feel that I have been tricked and have no face to see people.

The first time the witch Ji Xian showed the pot his appearance, the pot showed him the "local language". Diwen, the image of the earth in winter, the earth is depressed and lifeless. To put it more bluntly, it is the "appearance of the dead".

The pot pretended to be the appearance of a dying person, and asked the witch Ji Xian to show him his face. Outcome! The witch Ji Xian didn't know that people were playing him, and he cast spells on others seriously, and then collected the money and left.

The witch Ji Xian showed the pot the appearance for the second time, and the pot showed him the "appearance of the world". What is the aspect of the earth? It is the appearance of the germination of heaven and earth, the sign that spring is coming, the earth is recovering, and all things are budding.

It's too esoteric to say this, to put it bluntly, the pot pretends to be a person who has just recovered from a serious illness.

Outcome! The witch Ji Xian didn't know that people were playing him, and he cast spells on others seriously, and then collected the money and left.

He also bragged to Liezi, saying, "Luck! Mr. Zizhi met me too, and he had a stump! It's all alive! I see its power! "Meaning! If your teacher hadn't met me, he would have died.

The witch Ji Xian showed the pot the appearance for the third time, and the pot showed him the "appearance of Taichong". What is the aspect of Taichong? To put it bluntly, it is to pretend that the condition is getting worse and about to die for a while, and then pretending to be getting better.

Outcome! The witch Ji Xian didn't know that people were playing him, he didn't cast a spell on the pot this time, and he didn't play his tricks to deceive. Because! He couldn't see it: Is Liezi's teacher pot a good disease or is it going to die?

Seemingly! This witch Ji Xian still has a moral bottom line, and he doesn't just care about collecting money and deceiving people.

Maybe? At this time, he began to suspect that he was being tricked. After all! He is also a high-IQ person, and he is not so easily tricked.

Liezi was puzzled and asked the teacher what was going on?

The pot began to speak, and he said that there were nine kinds of yuan, and he only said three. He only showed the faces of the three kinds of people to the god witch Ji Xian just now, and the "six kinds" were not displayed.

In fact! There are more than nine types of human faces? Here's just a metaphor. The ancients cherished ink like gold, and the style of writing is like this, which makes you think.

The pot said: "My hometown shows that the ether is not victorious, and it is to see my balance of qi." The trial of the salamander is the abyss, the trial of stopping the water is the abyss, and the trial of the flowing water is the abyss. There are nine in the abyss, and there are three here. Taste and come. ”

The next day, Liezi brought the god witch Xianji to see the teacher pot.

This! Before Ji Xian could stand still, he couldn't run on his own.

Liezi asked, "What's going on?" Why did he run? ”

The pot said: "The face and appearance I showed him just now are the appearance of an ignorant teenager. I didn't reveal my details, I was just a curious teenager who didn't know anything. I just looked at him, and he couldn't figure out what I was. Thereupon! I changed into a very well-behaved, obedient person who didn't know what to do. He may have seen it: I was pretending, pretending to be submissive, pretending to be obedient, but in fact I was testing him in turn. So! And he fled. ”

After reading the above introduction, the metaphor of the witch looking at this paragraph comes out.

The mentality of people in the world is varied, and the faces of people in the world are also varied, and you have no idea what other people think in their hearts. It is not easy to see through a person.

Maybe? We are like the witch Ji Xian, who thought we were smart, but we were still tricked by someone as high as a pot. Everyone else is an actor and can act.

This is what Zhuangzi wants to tell us.

But! And that's not all!

And also! How can we be like the teacher's pot: to understand all kinds of lives?

A person who has not comprehended life will not be able to interpret this role well. Even if he is a Hollywood international film and television superstar, I am afraid that he will not be able to play the role of "all kinds of life".

Therefore! Another intention of the witch to look at this paragraph of text came out again.

Only when we learn the Tao and understand life can we play this role well, and we can "play it well" in society.

In fact! It's also about autonomy! People's self-government!

The Zhuangzi chapter is about the "rule of the emperor" and how to govern the world. It is never enough to rely on the emperor alone to govern society, but also to be self-governing and self-disciplined.

After writing about the appearance of gods and witches, Zhuangzi wrote about how Liezi learned the Tao, and finally returned to learning the Tao.

If we don't understand the Tao, we can't be the protagonists in society, we will always be a layman, and we will go with the flow.

Liezi followed the teacher to learn the Tao with sincerity and returned home. He didn't dare to do anything like he used to be, as if he hadn't learned anything. Without going out for three years, he helped his wife cook on the fire and be a good husband. Feeding pigs is like a waiter, not treating pigs as pigs, but as their own brothers and sisters.

Because! Humans and all things come from heaven and earth, and pigs also come from heaven and earth. So! He treats pigs as brothers and sisters.

Treat all kinds of world affairs, regardless of relatives and relatives, and no partiality. The carvings and ornaments of the past have restored them to their original appearance. Everything is just a species that exists on the earth, so let them exist in the world in their own shape! All things are diverse, but they all have their own nature.

People have human nature, things have physical nature, and pigs also have their own personality...... Knowing things is the highest state of cognition.

But! All things come from the Tao, and eventually they must return to the Tao.

So! They exist as if they didn't exist, and when they come to this world, they are just one thing that has materialized from the Tao. Human beings are just a species materialized by the Tao.

So! Don't chase fame and things outside of you. Because! Man, like all things, is just a species. In the long cycle of life, the human body is like a corpse, just a shape.

So! Don't show your wisdom and strategy too much. Because! Life is just a process of life, just to complete the task of being a human being.

So! Don't try to give advice to others and do useless things. Because! Life is just a process of life, just to complete the task of being a human being. Furthermore! Others are not stupid, what do you want you to worry about him?

Experience the ever-moving, endless realm of the cycle of life and forget yourself. Don't treat yourself as a human being, but as one of all things, as a Tao, and reach the state of selflessness.

Let the Tao materialize us into any species, and accept it calmly, without joy or sorrow. Because! The emergence of all life is only the completion of the process of this life.

The hearts of the noble and noble people are like a mirror, and everything is reflected in front of the mirror. Do not deliberately welcome or deliberately exclude, accept but do not hide. They approach the world the same way they look in the mirror, so! It can not only maintain the original nature of things, but also not hurt oneself because of it.

The above is a state of cognition, and if we reach this state and return to real life, we will be much calmer. It's not that we have to indulge in that state and forget the reality of life we face.

The realm returns to the realm, and the real life returns to the real life. Just like ideals and reality, ideals belong to ideals, and reality returns to reality. Only by combining the two can we live a down-to-earth life.

Finally, it is about "the death of chaos". In fact, it is talking about the trouble that IQ brings to human beings, but it does not mean that we reject wisdom and IQ, which is not what it means. Rather, it is for us to recognize the essence of things, and only when we find the essence of things can we fundamentally cure them.

As human beings, we still have to live, to complete the process of this life. We can't avoid the process of birth, we can only accept it calmly. When we understand life and the Tao, and change a state of mind and mentality to face life and the real situation, we will be much calmer.

Zhuangzi, Liezi and other Taoists talk about a state of mind and state of mind, not completely nothingness. What would happen if we had this mentality, this state of mind, and then returned to real life? Needless to say? Naturally, it's a getaway.

If we indulge in the mentality and state of mind that Zhuangzi, Liezi and other Taoists talk about, and cannot return to reality, then! Our lives are all over, and life like that is really boring.

In real life, we have relatives, parents, siblings, spouses, children, descendants and acquaintances around us, and we still need to have friends with these people if we want to complete the process of this life.

So! If we think of life as a "life drama", we have to be the protagonist and interpret our own life. Instead of going with the flow and living in someone else's TV series.

We still have to return to life, and learning the Tao is just a change of mentality and state of mind, not to avoid reality.

The realm returns to the realm, and the real life returns to the real life. Just like ideals and reality, ideals belong to ideals, and reality returns to reality. Only by combining the two can we live a down-to-earth life.

Bear! It is the most cherished by Taoism.

So! All the articles that interpret Lao Zhuang's philosophy and put "life" aside, and enter the realm of nothingness and spirituality, are nonsense.

Because! People live in the real world.