Everyone is familiar with the idiom of three days and four days, which comes from the second part of the book "Zhuangzi", "The Theory of Things". It has been handed down to this day, and it has completely deviated from the metaphorical meaning in the original text, and it can be said that it is unrecognizable.

When I first came into contact with this idiom, I thought it meant that a person who has this and thinks about that, insatiable. Some people may think that it refers to a person who is capricious or a person who picks up sesame seeds and loses watermelon. In a word! Understandings vary.

In fact! Various modern understandings have deviated from the meaning of Zhuangzi in the original text of the Theory of Things.

In Zhuangzi's theory of homogeneity, it refers to the amount of food that monkey keepers feed to monkeys, and decides to give the monkeys three liters of food in the morning and four liters of food in the evening. Outcome! The monkey thought it was less, and shouted no. Seeing this, the monkey keeper hurriedly changed his words and said, four liters in the morning and three liters in the evening. When the monkey heard this, he felt as if there were more. Three becomes four, isn't it? I nodded in agreement.

Afterward! It became an idiom and has been handed down.

In fact! In the original text of Zhuangzi's "Theory of Things", it means to refer to people. It's a monkey as an analogy. The world thinks that they are smart, as smart as monkeys, monkeys and monkeys. I only hear what I said before, but I don't know the final result.

The result is the same, there are only seven liters of food a day, but the monkey only hears the front from "three" to "four", which is obviously too much. I didn't notice that the "four" in the back became "three", and the result did not change.

Zhuangzi means that most of us in the world are like monkeys, thinking that we are very smart, and we have been fooled by Confucianism and Mohistism, as well as by the hundred schools of thought, as well as some people who are as shrewd as monkey keepers. They were all fooled by these shrewd people like monkey keepers, and they only heard what the monkey keepers said in the front, but they didn't listen to what they said later. Or! What the monkey keeper said later, they didn't listen to at all.

During the Warring States period of Zhuangzi, all the sons and hundreds of schools of thought were selling their own doctrines and ideas, just like people in modern society were selling goods and advertising by singers and celebrities, all of them were talking about how good their doctrines and ideas were.

Especially at that time, the doctrines and ideas of Confucianism and Mohism were very popular, and they often held doctrine debate meetings to advocate their own doctrines and thoughts. Of course! At that time, Taoism also debated with Mohists.

Yang Zhu of Taoism, PK Mojia Poultry Slippery and other inheritors of Mohist doctrine. Yang Zhu is famous all over the world for "not pulling out a hair", and he has also encountered criticism from the world for "not pulling out a hair". Later, the Confucian Meng Ke, that is, the sub-sage Mencius in the opinion of later scholars, said that Yang Zhu's unstoppable thought was a beast.

Yang Zhu believes that the management of society and the governance of the country should start from the individual person, and look at the problem and solve the problem from the perspective and position of the individual person. Because society, the state is made up of individual people. Only by first governing individual people can we govern the world well.

Later Confucianism also said "self-cultivation, family harmony, governing the country, and leveling the world", and also put individual people in front. Of course! Confucianism's "self-cultivation" is based on the perspective and position of society, which is different from Yang Zhu's "self-cultivation".

Yang Zhu's "self-cultivation" is to stand on the perspective and position of individual people, and from the perspective and position of the essence of human nature. The same is about self-cultivation. But the footholds of the two are different. Depending on the foothold, the subsequent theories will naturally be very different.

Why did Zhuangzi make such an analogy?

Because! Whether it is Confucianism or Mohism, they all serve the survival of people. It's all about how to govern the country so that the people can live a good life. That's the purpose! As for the means and methods you use, they are all secondary to the masses of the people.

No matter how good you say, but the people can't get benefits, and they don't live a good life, you are all deceiving! It's like a monkey farmer deceiving a monkey, whether it's "three days and four nights" or "four days and three nights", the result is the same!

Why did Zhuangzi curse? How can you compare the world to a monkey that has been tricked?

In fact! Zhuangzi did not publicly insult the world, but only made a vague analogy. It shouldn't be an exaggeration to compare people to monkeys, right? At that stage, monkeys were a little less intelligent than humans. Again! The metaphor of a monkey is more appropriate.

Zhuangzi's original intention should not be to insult the world, but to use this metaphor to guide others and make the world have an epiphany.

Combined with the original text of "The Theory of Things", we can find the origin of the allusion to the three days and the four days.

Before that, after talking about the sounds of nature, the sounds of the earth, and the sounds of people, I began to talk about people.

As mentioned in the previous article, the sound of human beings, when viewed from the height of the road, is like the song of a bird, like the sound of a strong wind blowing in a tree hollow, and like the neighing of a wild beast.

And then! Descend to the level of human beings to talk about human voices, that is, human voices. What are the human voices?

Zhuangzi then describes the various voices of the world and the people who make them.

In "The Theory of Things", from "the great knowledge is idle, the small knowledge is intermittent" to "the day and night are in front of each other, and I don't know what it is cute." Already, already! When you get this, the reason for it is born! It is to describe the various voices of the world and the people who make them. And then! out of the sigh.

Different voices and different expressions, thus forming different people and lives.

Next, Zhuangzi explains to us: Why do we need to do this?

Shouldn't we be like that?

Zhuangzi explained to us, saying that we are all human beings, and we are all part of the human body, just like the five internal organs in the human body. You can't favor one over the other, you can't hurt each other, and you can't hurt each other. Human beings are all part of heaven and earth, and like all things, they are all part of heaven and earth, and depend on heaven and earth for their birth. Just like the five internal organs in the human body, they are all part of the human body, can we hurt each other?

Next, he will persuade us that life is very short, and that from birth to death, it is only a life process. He was born weak, then he slowly grew stronger, and then he grew old and died.

This paragraph is from "once it is formed, do not forget to wait for it" to "I am alone, and people are not good?" In the last sentence, Zhuangzi sighed again! Do you think the world is so confused and ignorant? Or am I alone?

Further down, we get to the point. Zhuangzi tells us why people in the world are so confused and ignorant, and why they think they are as smart as monkeys. In fact! It's because "Chengxin" is making trouble, and everything is caused by "Chengxin".

So? What is Enlightenment?

Chengxin, explained in layman's terms, is "preconception", a person often looks at things without going through their own brains, and habitual thinking, thinking that this is the case. On purpose! It can also be interpreted biased as prejudice, prejudice, stubbornness, fixed thinking, habitual thinking, and so on.

How did the heart come about?

Zhuangzi thinks! It's because we've been educated and taught by others! From an early age, we are educated, taught, and induced by our parents, elders, and those around us. When we grow up, we receive school education, and after we come into contact with society, we empathize with the social experience, etc., so that we have our own understanding and cognition of this society, so as to make our judgments, and then show our words and deeds.

This is where the heart comes from.

These people who teach us, including parents, elders, people who come into contact with us, husbands, people who come into contact with society, and the feelings that the living environment gives us, etc., are all monkey keepers, and we! It's a monkey that was raised.

In the Warring States period! The monkey breeders referred to by Zhuangzi mainly refer to Confucianism and Mohist, as well as the hundred schools of thought. Because! These people all think that their doctrines and ideas are correct, and they are all advocating and asking people to learn from them. It's a lot of fanci, but what about the monkeys in the world? There is only one requirement, and that is "more".

As long as you say that what you Confucianism or Mohists say is good, it sounds tempting, I will believe you! Outcome! There is an idiom allusion to "three days and four evenings".

Outcome! Most people in the world have been tricked by monkey keepers.

Outcome! Whether it is Confucianism, Mohism, or the hundred schools of thought, they all hang the brand of serving the people, and they do not serve the people wholeheartedly after that. Outcome! It's just that they have successfully promoted the products they are selling, Confucianism or Mohism or Zhuzi Baijia.

So? How can we not be treated like monkeys?

In the "Theory of Things", Zhuangzi also gave a detailed explanation.

From "things are nothing but others, things are nothing more than others" to "heaven and earth are one finger, all things are one horse", they are all explained to us. If we understand, we understand, then! We will no longer be monkeys being played by others, and we will be ourselves again.

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