《老子》（道德经）——蔡忠元译
【第十九章】 从去殡仪管那天起，连着几天，他都忙着。 忙的时候把大脑锁起来，什么也不想。那天殡仪...
我的老同学蔡忠元近三十年笔耕不辍，整理、注解、翻译了《老子》（又名《道德经》或《道德真经》），2013年在美国出版发行。在此，感谢老同学蔡忠元把中国传统文化的精髓传播到西方，让中华文化之光大放异彩，让我们享受到了先贤思想的饕餮盛宴！
老子，是我国古代伟大的哲学家和思想家、道家学派创始人，被唐朝帝王追认为李姓始祖。老子乃世界文化名人，世界百位历史名人之一，存世有《道德经》（又称《老子》），其作品的精华是朴素的辩证法，主张无为而治，其学说对中国哲学发展具有深刻影响。在道教中，老子被尊为道教始祖。老子与后世的庄子并称老庄。
老子（约公元前571年-公元前471年）：字伯阳，谥号聃，又称李耳（古时“老”和“李”同音；“聃”和“耳”同义），楚国苦县厉乡曲仁里人。曾做过周朝“守藏室之官”（管理藏书的官员），是中国最伟大的哲学家和思想家之一，被道教尊为教祖，世界文化名人。老子的思想主张是“无为”，《老子》以“道”解释宇宙万物的演变，“道”为客观自然规律，同时又具有“独立不改，周行而不殆”的永恒意义。《老子》书中包括大量朴素辩证法观点，如以为一切事物均具有正反两面，并能由对立而转化，是为“反者道之动”，“正复为奇，善复为妖”，“祸兮福之所倚，福兮祸之所伏”。又以为世间事物均为“有”与“无”之统一，“有、无相生”，而“无”为基础，“天下万物生于有，有生于无”。他关于民众的格言有：“天之道，损有余而补不足，人之道则不然，损不足以奉有余”；“民之饥，以其上食税之多”；“民之轻死，以其上求生之厚”；“民不畏死，奈何以死惧之”。他的哲学思想和由他创立的道家学派，不但对中国古代思想文化的发展作出了重要贡献，而且对中国2000多年来思想文化的发展产生了深远的影响。关于他的身份，还有人认为他是老莱子，也是楚国人，跟孔子同时，曾著书十五篇宣传道家之用；还有人认为是周太史儋（dān），生活在孔子死后一百多年的时间里。著名史学家司马迁在其《史记》的《老子韩非列传》中即说明了当时对老子何其人有过此两种猜测。“或曰：老子亦老莱子也，著书十五篇，言道家之用，与孔子同时云。”当时司马迁也疑老子即为老莱子，并不是道家创始人。
老聃长寿，一百零一岁仙逝，邻里皆来吊唁。老人哭之，如哭其子；少者哭之，如哭其母。念老子顺民之性、随民之情、与世无争、柔慈待人的大德大恩，皆悲不自胜。老聃好友秦佚来吊唁，至老子灵旁，不跪不拜，拱手致意，哭号三声即止。待其欲转身回去时，邻人拦住问道：“汝非老子好友乎？”秦佚答道；“当然。”邻人道：“既为老子好友，如此薄情少礼，可乎？”秦佚道；“有何不可？”邻人闻言，由怒转，大声责问道：“其理何在？”秦佚笑道：“吾友老聃有言，生亦不喜，死亦不悲。汝可闻乎？昔日老聃之生也，由无至有，聚气而成，顺时而来，合自然之理，有何喜哉？今日老聃之死也，由有归无，散气而灭，顺时而去，合自然之理也。有何悲哉？生而喜者，是以为不当喜而喜也；死而悲者，是以为不当悲而悲也，放生时贵生，死时怕死，皆是以己之意愿而强求生来、强求死去也，皆背自然之理而任己之情也。如安时而处顺，则哀乐不能入也。而背自然、违天理，合于道乎？不合于道，可为老聃好友乎？老聃好友者，遵其言而动、顺于道而行者也。吾既为老聃之友，故能以理化情，故不悲。”
邻人闻之，似有所悟，又问：“汝既不悲，何以哭号三声？”秦佚笑道：“吾哭号三声，非因悲也，是与老聃辞别也。一号，言其生而应时，合自然之理也。二号，言其死而应时，合自然之理也；三号，言其在世传自然无为之道，合自然之理也。老聃举足而应时，动止而合道，吾有何悲哉？”众邻闻之，皆言秦佚乃老聃真友，故推其为主葬之人。合土之时，秦佚颂悼文道：“老聃大圣，替天行道，游神大同，千古流芳。”
老子主要著作
老子在出函谷关前著有五千言的《老子》一书，又名《道德经》或《道德真经》。《道德经》、《易经》和《论语》被认为是对中国人影响最深远的三部思想巨著。《道德经》分为上下两册，共81章，前37章为上篇道经，第38章以下属下篇德经，全书的思想结构是：道是德的“体”，德是道的“用”。全文共计五千字左右。
《道德经》是后来的称谓，最初这本书称为《老子》而无《道德经》之名。其成书年代过去多有争论，至今仍无法确定，不过根据1993年出土的郭店楚简“老子”年代推算，成书年代至少在战国中前期。楚简《老子》校注，参看丁四新著《郭店楚竹书老子校注》等书。
《老子》以“道”解释宇宙万物的演变，以为“道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物”，“道”乃“夫莫之命（命令）而常自然”，因而“人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然”。除了朴素的唯物主义观点，《老子》一书中还包括大量朴素辩证法观点，如以为一切事物均具有正反两面，“反者道之动”，并能由对立而转化，此外，书中也有大量的民本思想：“天之道，损有余而补不足，人之道则不然，损不足以奉有余”；“民之饥，以其上食税之多”；“民之轻死，以其上求生之厚”；“民不畏死，奈何以死惧之”。其学说对中国哲学发展具有深刻影响。
Chinese-English Paraphrase
In the long history of the development of mankind, thephilosophers and thinkers over the world have left to us many invaluableheritages of thoughts and cultures. But in contrast, Lao Tzu can be called aunique historical figure that has outshined most of them in that his thoughtshave always been shining with unusually extraordinary brilliance and splendor. Inthe past 2,500 years, not only has Lao Tzu’s ideological system been spokenhighly of by the circle of the Chinese thoughts and theories and the circles ofthe Japanese and Korean thoughts and theories but also has it been highlyvalued by the circles of the European and American thoughts and theories. Therefore,in behaving oneself, nurturing one’s moral life and managing state andgovernment affairs, Lao Tzu’s thought has been and will for ever be the firstand foremost self-contained theoretical system that can lead mankind on the wayto healthy development, and thus he deserves to be recognized as the firstancestor of all schools of thought in China.
In the past, some scholars claimed that the thought of“take non-action and manage everything successfully” proposed by Lao Tzu wasmore than negative and unenterprising. This was attributed to the fact thatthey had not taken efforts to understand his profound and coherent themes andthey had only interpreted them out of context based on their reference tolimited time and space. As a matter of fact, many scholars come to be keenlyaware that it is one of the most positive ideological principles to stick to “takenon-action and manage everything successfully”, because the concept of “non-action”is to call for “forget one’s own knowledge and give up one’s own wisdom as asage”, which means giving up the idea of one’s own pursuing excessive materialenjoyment in order to meet the common requirements of others, the society, thecountry and even the whole mankind, and assert that people should do things inconformity with natural law but not vice versa and that everyone should forgettheir own personal interests, make contributions to the society as they should,and do their utmost to serve the public interests and enterprise. Only in sodoing can the country, the society and even the whole world attain the goal oflasting peace and stability.
Lao Tzu establishes his ideological system against thebackground of the whole universe, takes the whole nature as the domain of hisdiscussion and asserts that every individual should give up their own interestsand make contributions to the country and every country should give up theirown interests and make contributions to the world so that the whole mankind mayhave a promising future in common development. Meanwhile, any individual’sinterests and any organization’s interests are not so important and stressshould be laid on the interests at the highest level, i.e. the public andcommon interests of the majority of people over the world. If the greatestpublic interests cannot be guaranteed, how can the individual’s interests be guaranteed?Therefore, Lao Tzu’s thought is not only not negative at all but also more thanpositive and honorable, being characterized by the enterprising spirit oftranscending the material world. President Xi Jinping cited “Governinga power is just like cooking fresh tiddlers” when he began to take his office,which was a quotation from the first sentence of Chapter 60 in Lao Tzu; meanwhile, Premier Li Keqiangconcluded his own life-long work experience with nine Chinese characters (butin English more than nine words), namely, “Practice Great Tao, take people asthe root and benefit the world” at a press conference after he took his office.This conclusion of his work experience could reflect some of the main ideas in Lao Tzu. From what they have mentioned,it can be seen that today’s China’s top leaders come to attach much importanceto and begin to apply Lao Tzu’s thought and theory to their own work. UNSecretary General Ban Ki-moon quoted Lao Tzu’s saying that “The way of heavenis to benefit but not to harm, and the way of the sage is to act but not tocompete” in his inaugural speech after he was reelected UN Secretary General.
This notwithstanding,we are still faced with a grim reality today. In the present period whenmankind has procured highly advanced material civilization, spiritualcivilization and moral standards have not been simultaneously promoted but haveregrettably been demoted. In order to develop and expand their own interests,many countries in the world have never put a stop to struggling; and in orderto consolidate their own interests, they have never put a stop to the R&Dof sophisticated hi-tech lethal weapons. It is self-evident that when mankindhas acquired high-level wisdom, they come gradually to exhaust varieties ofvaluable natural resources for their own temporary benefit, which willinevitably result in self-destruction of mankind in the foreseeable future.
Judging from thefact that many countries develop their own interests, they do commandextraordinary wisdom, but if we think it over by means of rational reasoning inview of the long-lasting development of mankind, then where is their wisdomreflected? The social practice in the past few thousand years proves that todestroy others is to destroy ourselves. In the past hundred years, science andtechnology have been rapidly developed, and simply in this short historicalperiod, the number of people who have died in various wars should rank first inthe war history of mankind. Therefore, believe it or not, for whoever he is,the only ever-lasting bright way of development is to take the public andcommon interests of mankind as his own interests to look upon; and there is no betterway than this. So undoubtedly in this field, Lao Tzu’s thought turns out to bea system of fully-developed universal values with one of the main ideas beingthat to live well, you must let others live better.
Therefore, it is ofgreat realistic and historic significance either for us or for others to studyand acquire this system of universal values in the present period when variousinterest groups still keep fighting and competing. Up to date, more and moretheorists and entrepreneurs have come to treasure such universal values andstart using it to pursue the further development of their organizations andenterprises. This is because they know well that when their organizations andenterprises develop to a certain extent, if they continue to expand the spaceof their further development, they must get rid of the obstacles from amongthemselves; if they want to get rid of the obstacles from among themselves,they have almost no alternative but to use this system of universal values. Anyorganizations and enterprises will never be able to realize their dream oflong-lasting development if they do not put such universal values in theirpractice. Mr. Li Ka-shing, a great businessman, has always had a good commandof this system of universal values and so he has succeeded. He mentioned andreiterated the importance of universal values when giving lectures to thestudents in Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. This proves that greatsuccess always stays together with universal values.
It is axiomatic thatthe system of universal values is a universal truth that will never change withtime. This is exactly great contributions that Lao Tzu has made to thelong-lasting co-existence of mankind in terms of peace and stability. Most ofgreat thinkers over the world admire Lao Tzu so whole-heartedly today, thereason being just that.
CaiZhongyuan
Associate Professor, NUAA缘来缘去，你我心有灵犀，请长按下面二维码或搜索“阳吉文化”进入公众号，相互交流、学习、分享！
我们还提供各种语言、艺术类、传统国学、继续教育、职业等培训、专业定制的翻译、信息安全、信息技术、文化交流的咨询。
莘莘学子选择我们，让您的梦想飞！
十年寒窗苦，自由一朝阳！ 021-61310306
021-61310308
13917181980
13122910099
dat161500@163.com
关注 阳吉文化
微信扫一扫关注公众号
