——Quoted in "Speech at the Central Economic Work Conference" and other articles

■Interpretation

"Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh" comes from "Lao Tzu", which is another sentence quoted by Comrade Xi Jinping many times. The governance idea embodied in it is that there are not too many government decrees, let alone complicated, but it is necessary to maintain stability and concentration in order to achieve "steady steps". Comrade Xi Jinping asked leading cadres to improve their ability to think dialectically, that is, to admit contradictions, analyze contradictions, resolve contradictions, and be good at grasping the key, finding the key points, and gaining insight into the law of development of things. Just as in the face of the state of "three-phase superposition" in the period of shifting China's economic growth rate, the painful period of structural adjustment, and the digestion period of the stimulus policy in the early stage, only by looking at the problem in two and thinking about things from multiple angles can we avoid the "blind man touching the elephant" and grasp the general trend of reform. The central government calmly observed, calmly responded, and adhered to the idea that macroeconomic policies should be stable, micro policies should be lively, and social policies should be underpinned, in exchange for growth, employment, and prices to be stable and improving, and speed, structure, and efficiency should be improved simultaneously. If the decree is too cumbersome and concrete, it may fall into a situation where it is exhausted to cope with the ever-changing actual situation, and the way to deal with it is to "keep the center" -- to keep the bottom line, to keep the principles, and to keep the fundamentals, so that all changes can not deviate from the original and finally respond to all changes with the same.

■Original text

Heaven and earth are unkind, and all things are used as dogs; The saints are unkind, and they use the people as dogs. Between heaven and earth, is it still like a slurrel? Void but unyielding, moving and getting more and more. ——(Spring and Autumn) Lao Tzu "Lao Tzu Chapter 5"

■Definition

"It's better to keep the middle than to talk too much" is from the fifth chapter of "Lao Tzu". "Many words" is the opposite of "not speaking", which refers to the multiplicity of government decrees. Poor numbers: Repeated failures. Neutrality: Hold on to silence.

Lao Tzu illustrates this truth through the two metaphors of "dog" and "Lu Gong". Dogs: Dogs made of grass during ancient sacrifices, and they were thrown away or burned after the sacrifice. The dog is a sacrifice, and people have no love or hatred for it. 橐龠 (tuó yuè): bellows. Lao Tzu believes that heaven and earth have no preference, and treat all things like dogs, relying on the natural growth of all things; The saints did not have a preference, and treated the people like dogs, relying on the people to make their own decisions. Isn't it like a bellows between heaven and earth? It is empty and not exhausted, and the more it stirs up, the stronger the wind becomes. Therefore, it is better to be quiet and inactive than to have many decrees and have repeatedly failed.

In this respect, Lao Tzu and Confucius seem to have many similarities. Confucius believed that a gentleman should be "sensitive to things and cautious in his words", and even advocated "a word to prosper the country" and "a word to lose the state", elevating speech to a level related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Confucius is from the perspective of "promising", but what Lao Tzu talks about is "non-action", advocating that politics is not too much, and the "zhong" of "keeping the center" and "rushing" refers to the inner quietness, which is not the so-called righteousness, moderation, and impartiality of Confucianism.