"Then what did Confucius learn from Lao Tzu?"

"Lao Tzu's way, noble and noble, is the way to be born without fighting. In the Taoist lineage, the requirement of cultivation is not in intelligence, but only in the harmony of heart and nature. And Confucius was born with a single mind, and he was a strong character, which was not suitable for Lao Tzu's Tao at all. Therefore, when Lao Tzu first saw Confucius, he knew that he was not suitable for his inheritance. So he recommended him to Chang Hong as a disciple. However, as a priest of the Great Zhou royal family, Chang Hong's inheritance could not be passed on to outsiders, so what he taught Confucius was only the foundation and the surface. After Confucius said goodbye to Chang Hong, he went to say goodbye to Lao Tzu, and when he parted, Lao Tzu preached Confucius's way of water. Of course, Confucius is still his character, choosing those who are good and following them, and changing those who are not good. What is Goodness? What suits you is 'good'. Confucius learned from Lao Tzu the entire system of cultivation, and based on this, he created a system that suited him. ”

"What basis do you have for saying that Confucius has a strong personality and is not suitable for the Tao of Lao Tzu?"

"Although the two are masters and apprentices, their paths are opposite. As far as revenge is concerned, Lao Tzu has no obstacles, pursues the way of Tai Chi and harmony, and does not take grievances to heart, so in the "Tao Te Ching" it is said that 'revenge is virtuous'. On the contrary, Confucius taught people to be gentlemen, and to follow the way of square and straight. Therefore, when someone asked Confucius about 'repaying grievances with virtue', Confucius asked him, 'How can you repay virtue?' Then Confucius said, 'Repay grievances with straightforwardness, and repay virtue with virtue.'" ”

"What is Lao Tzu's cultivation system you are talking about? Essence? Gas? God? ”

"The way of Lao Tzu is, first of all, the way of yin and yang. The body is yang, and the spirit is yin. Movement and practice, quiet and refreshed. This is the cultivation system that Confucius learned from Lao Tzu when he first met him. However, on this basis, Lao Tzu himself reversed yin and yang, from Taiji to Wuji, and embarked on the road of forgetting the love of Taishang, refining the gods and returning the void, and refining the void and the Tao. I don't know if Lao Tzu taught Confucius these things, or if he realized them after Confucius left, but there is no doubt that this path is not suitable for Confucius, and even completely contrary to Confucius's way. ”

"You say that it is contrary to the way of Confucius, but what is the way of Confucius?"

"The Tao of Confucius is benevolence. Benevolence is a spiritual belief. This is Confucius's method of practicing the gods. Well, there are some things I said that seem to be easy to misunderstand, especially in the words 'practice' and 'practice'. Hua Xue said and wrote these two words.

Pointing to the word "practice", Hua Xue said: "This practice word is the meaning of practice, the practice I just said, practice the spirit, when I say it alone, it is all this practice word, and the purpose of practice is to follow the word behind." ”

He pointed to the word "refining" and said: "This refining means refining." The so-called 'refining qi and transforming gods' means that after refining qi, it nourishes the original spirit, which is actually practicing the gods. ”

Finally, he concluded: "As long as you pay attention to whether the word 'practice' is followed by the word 'hua' when I say, you can roughly know which word 'practice' I am talking about." ”

Then back to the previous topic: "Confucius's method of practicing the gods is to firmly practice one's beliefs. For Confucius himself, this belief is benevolence. For Confucius, this belief, that is, benevolence, was his way. The completion of the Yuan Shen means that he has practiced his own Dao, that is, his Dao has been completed.

In Confucius's view, practicing essence is the foundation of all cultivation, and practicing the spirit is the real practice. Throughout his life, he has been constantly practicing his benevolent way. ”

Hua Xue said too much, too inconsecutive, Chen Yuan was a little impatient: "You said so much, it's all physique and primordial spirit, what about internal strength?" What we care about is internal force! ”

"Well, let's talk about internal forces next. How does Qi come about? For Lao Tzu, Qi is vitality and is everywhere. For Confucius, qi is grain qi, born from eating grain. For them, qi is just nourishment for cultivating the gods, the so-called 'refining qi and transforming the gods'. But we can clearly see the problem, Confucius was born only twenty years later than Lao Tzu, but for him, qi is not everywhere. Therefore, Confucius lamented: 'The deceased is like a husband, reluctant to give up day and night'. It is not only the water and time that passes, but also the vitality between heaven and earth that is used for cultivation. ”

"Huh?" The exclamation sounded again, and Hua Xue's statement was really appalling.

Liu Ru asked on behalf of the crowd, "What do you mean is that qi is a special existence. Originally, at least when Lao Tzu began to cultivate, it was still filled with heaven and earth. But later in the time of Confucius, it was only obtained from grains? ”

"Yes, that's what I meant."

Regardless of the shock of the women, Hua Xue continued: "By the time of Mencius and Zhuangzi, the qi between heaven and earth was already very small, or it was not enough to supplement the cultivation needs just by eating. Therefore, Zhuangzi's "Autumn Water" has 'a hundred rivers irrigate the river' and 'ten thousand rivers return to the sea'. "Getaway" says, "If the accumulation of wind is not thick, then its negative wings are also weak." Therefore, 90,000 miles, the wind is below, and then it is now the wind'. It seems to be talking about Feng and Peng, but in fact, it is talking about Yuan Qi and cultivators. What he wanted to say was: if the qi accumulation was not enough, then it would be difficult for the cultivated Yuan Shen to reach the advanced realm. Therefore, those who cultivated to a high level back then were actually due to the abundant vitality of heaven and earth. Therefore, if we want to cultivate to a high level, the first thing we need to do is to cultivate vitality. ”

"Zhuangzi" is not a must-read publication for private schools, but "Autumn Water" and "Getaway" are really famous, and the allusions in them are even more famous, so several women have read them. Now they can't bear to look at it directly, and they feel that the "Zhuangzi" they read must also be fake.

"The Taoist method of practicing qi began with Zhuangzi, but at least for Zhuangzi, practicing qi is not the way for him to cultivate, but just the nourishment for cultivating the primordial spirit. The same is the contemporaneous Mencius. ”

Chen Yuan clapped his hands: "I know this, 'I am good at raising my heroic spirit'." Your Confucian method of practicing qi began with Mencius, right? ”

Hua Xue nodded: "Sister Yuanyuan is right, that's exactly the case." Kong said that he became benevolent, and Meng said that he took righteousness. Mencius's reason for cultivating Haoran's qi is obviously the same as Zhuangzi's, it is to cultivate the nourishment of the primordial gods, and Mencius's Tao is righteousness. ”

"All in all, at least before the time of Mencius, cultivators practiced all about refining qi and transforming gods, but not specifically practicing qi. In "The Romance of the Gods", Yun Zhongzi claims to be 'Zhongnan Mountain Yuzhu Cave Qi Practitioner', I don't know if it's a problem with the printing or a clerical error by the author, the so-called 'Qi Practitioner' is actually a 'Qi Refiner'. As he spoke, he gestured with the two words on the table and said, "All the monks of the pre-Qin Dynasty, except for those muscles that simply practice the body, as well as those whose realm is too high and profound like Lao Tzu, and of course, the kind of Mo family who pursue foreign things, in short, orthodox cultivators, can be called 'qi refiners'." ”