What are the advantages and disadvantages of Lao Tzu's thought of a small country and few people?

First of all, Lao Tzu advocated "small country with few people", not to go back to the ancients or retrogress. One of his important starting points is to pursue a simple folk custom. As Feng said, "The old gentleman's so-called ancient rule is not to ask for' simplicity, selfishness, no desire, no desire' and not to fight? Only in this way can we get what we need, and as for' Dashun'. If it is to seek to return to the world of' small countries and few people', what is it? " The world of small countries and few people pursued by Laozi is a peaceful world with stable life and no war. The development of human society has entered a civilized society. With the great development of social production, wars and uneven distribution are accompanied, and the ugliness of human greed, cruelty and fraud is increasing day by day. As Laozi himself said: "The avenue is abandoned and benevolent; When wisdom comes out, there is a big holiday. " And this is exactly what he doesn't want to see. In this regard, Li Zehou once quoted Marx and Engels in the History of Ancient China Thought: "Clan society lasted for a long time before the formal class society, and it did have many excellent human systems and personal virtues lost by class society." What I yearn for is such a beautiful system: no army and war, no nobles and kings, orderly society, equality and freedom for all. Although this is only an idealized state, it is a beautiful yearning and a benign design for human society.

Secondly, Lao Tzu advocates the rule by doing nothing, and "a small country with few people" is just the opposite of his thought of governing by doing nothing. Laozi started with his Taoist theory and extended it to the political thought of governing by doing nothing and the ideal of "a small country with few people", and his theory became a whole. Laozi said, "Doing nothing is death." He also said, "Governing a big country can be something new." He does not advocate governing the world by strengthening control over the people. On the contrary, he thinks it is necessary to minimize the disturbance to the people and achieve the goal of making the world safe. Because Lao Tzu believes that everything in the world follows the Tao and needs no more intervention. In addition, "promising" (such as Shang Xian, expensive goods, seeing what you want) will only make smart people work from it, which is the curse. Moreover, too many arbitrary laws will only make people tired of coping, unable to live according to their original laws, resulting in social instability. Therefore, Laozi advocates "small country with few people" and opposes centralization of power, which is "promising".

Thirdly, another important aspect of Laozi's thought of "a small country with few people" is to let the people live in their own homes, "have no worries about food and clothing, dress well, be honest and upright, and live and work in peace and contentment." There are some differences in the comments on this sentence, but if we carefully scrutinize the sentence "Let the people die again without moving far away" and other chapters in Laozi, we will find that the key point of this sentence in Laozi is to make the people comfortable, happy, comfortable and content without seeking change. Because folk customs can keep a simple state, people will be satisfied with the existing conditions and living environment, and will reach a state of wanting nothing. Without too much pursuit, there will be no intelligence, no struggle between people and no war between countries. Therefore, "there are boats and boats that have nothing to ride, and there are soldiers who have nothing to learn." In this way, the society is naturally stable and easy to govern.

In Laozi's philosophy, the starting point of his thinking is the whole universe. This made him have a global concept from the beginning, which is also the place where Laozi is superior to other pre-Qin philosophers. Therefore, as his prescription to save the world, the idea of "small country with few people" has a global concept and a long-term vision. Although it is only an idealized state, it can't be realized as it is in the real society, but looking back today, we will find many rationality. It is precisely because of these rationality that we still have important reference significance when dealing with many social problems today. With the development of society, problems such as environment, energy and ecology have become increasingly prominent. The issue of sustainable development is increasingly on the agenda. If we look back on Laozi's thought of "a small country with few people", we will feel that it is really reasonable for Laozi to design his ideal social model in this way, which shows his wisdom.

Some people criticized Laozi's thought of "small country and few people" for being conservative and retro, but it was actually asking too much of the ancients. Zhan Jianfeng once analyzed in Lao Zi, Lao Zi Shu and Lao Zi Lun that the ancient people in China had "the concept of change" and "the concept of development" but no "the concept of progress". The concept of progress only appeared in the Enlightenment in Europe in the18th century, and only entered China with the introduction of western philosophy. So it is not surprising that Lao Tzu has no concept of progress. After some philosophical thinking, he came to the political ideal of "a small country with few people", pursuing long-term social stability and "peace for all". Therefore, when we blindly pursue the rapid development of society, Laozi's thought is an excellent warning to us.

In addition, it should be noted that the meaning of "country" mentioned by Laozi is very different from that of today's country, which mostly refers to a feudal country. His so-called "small country with few people" is mainly an idea of local autonomy, which is also an obvious trend of political development in the world today. A country with a high concentration of power is often not conducive to its development. For example, the federal system in the United States, each state has considerable independence, and today's Europe is also developing towards this trend. With the development of society and the continuous integration of the world, especially the rapid development of the Internet, the individual's independent space has increased, and the communication between people has decreased, which also gives a new annotation to Lao Tzu's saying that "a chicken and a dog hear each other, but old people don't communicate with each other."

There was almost no logical thinking in ancient China, especially Lao Zi's thought. There is no rigorous process of analysis and argumentation as in the west, and his philosophical thought is only an intuitive understanding of the world, and the political ideal of "a small country with few people" is also a beautiful design of society based on his philosophical understanding. However, this intuitive understanding is often reasonable and cannot be underestimated. It can only be said that it is the great wisdom of philosophers and cannot be simply regarded as the fantasy of the ancients.