Taoist Culture Viewed from A Cheng's Novel "The King of Chess"

Facing the turbulent contemporary literary world, Acheng always regards "face life honestly and live honestly" as his life experience, constantly seeks Confucianism and asks, and draws nourishment from traditional culture. In "The King of Chess ", Acheng prescribed the "Dao" prescription for life. In the novel , the name "Life" starts from "One" and ends with "Birth", which is in line with the Tao Te Ching. "Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things". It seems like an ordinary name, but it contains the profound meaning of Taoism. Through the shaping of Wang Yisheng's ideal personality of "doing nothing but doing nothing", the author shows Taoism's transcendence of social reality and the detachment of life's suffering, and inspires the realistic meaning of contemporary life.

1. Practice and detachment

For Wang Yisheng, eating and playing chess are the two most important things in life. "I" and Wang Yisheng first met, and Wang Yisheng left a deep impression on me on "eating": "I saw that he carefully wiped the rice grains and soup, oil flowers on his mouth or chin with his index finger. Put it in your mouth." "If a grain of rice falls on the clothes, press it immediately and put it into your mouth." "After eating, he licked the two chopsticks, first sucked the oil on the top layer, and then took it with him. He sipped in small sips with the look of arriving safely." From the words "wiping", "tipping", "licking", and "sipping", we can see that Wang Yisheng was devout and meticulous about eating, but also worldly and rude, even "Inhumane". Wang Yisheng was born in poverty and suffered from hunger. His obsession with food is not only a natural instinct, but also forced by real life. But it is such a worldly person who is tired of reality, and the author makes him obsessed with chess and take the law from the Tao.

Taoism emphasizes no desire and no desire, and spiritual freedom, but in the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu once showed profound sympathy and indignation towards the "hungry of the people". Chapter 45 of the Tao Te Ching also states that "there are four major domains in the realm, but people live in one." It can be seen that Taoism is very sure of the essence of human beings, and does not exclude human beings from pursuing material needs in order to survive. Wang Yisheng's eating is an instinct, for the survival of the flesh, rather than a pursuit of appetite. In the text, we can see that he is very satisfied with his real life. Facing the complaints and crying of other people in the train, he said, "I went to a place where there was food, and I cried so much." Criticizing us always thinks of the icing on the cake. In the face of the story told by "I" - " Uncle Bunce ", he defined Bunce's gluttony as "gluttony" rather than "eating", and thought the story was not good. It can be seen that he believes that "eating" and "craving" are two completely different things. "Eating" is the way to survive, and "craving" is a desire that transcends survival. Wang Yisheng regards "eating" as very important, but it is a need based on his own instinct, a desire without desire. When his basic needs are satisfied, he can immediately jump out of the interference of material desires and turn to his obsession with chess. Turn to the persistence and pursuit of spiritual freedom.

The Tao Te Ching says: "The five colors make people blind; the five sounds make people deaf; the five flavors make people feel good; galloping and hunting makes people mad; rare goods make people hampered; Take this.” Pleasure built on the form of material desire will naturally encourage the breeding of greed, but only by satisfying the natural and instinctual needs of human nature, can we have the opportunity to achieve true desirelessness, get rid of the suffering of reality, and pursue true chicness with detachment.

2. Inaction and action

The root of traditional culture pursued by "Chess King" is Taoist culture. The chess in the text is not only a symbol of spiritual pursuit, but also a tool for cultural communication. As a "chess nerd", Wang Yisheng often said the Taoist language like "staying in chess is comfortable, how can you solve your worries, only chess" seems to be a kind of escape from reality, a kind of inaction thought, in fact it is the A pursuit of "doing nothing".

In the novel, when Wang Shengsheng and Ni Bin played chess for the first time, the other party took out the Ming Dynasty chess set: "I saw the chess pieces made of ebony, secretly shining. The characters were carved with a knife, the strokes were very thin, but they were seal characters— - Chuhe Hanjie." Ni Bin appeared on the stage and was amazed and envied everyone, while in contrast, Wang Yisheng revealed shabby everywhere. A pair of "wordless chess". Wang Yisheng didn't care much about the material of the pieces, the rules of playing chess, and the rankings. What he cared about was always the pleasure of the opponent and the meaning of the game itself. But at the end of the novel, we can see that he is very eager to participate in the chess game, and after learning about the "Nine Rounds of Wheels", he is also very nervous, and is also very eager for the title of "chess king". In the competition with various opponents, Wang Yisheng competed against the crowd and ended the competition with an impressive record of "eight wins and one draw", subverting the entire regional competition and becoming the real chess king in people's minds. It can be seen that Wang Yisheng's inaction towards chess is precisely a means and a way for him to achieve promising results.

"Laozi" wrote: "If there is nothing wrong, there will be no cure." "Zhuangzi" also wrote: "If the accumulation of water is not thick, then it will not be able to carry a big boat." "Tao Te Ching" points out: " It is because the sages do things without action, teach without words, and do everything without saying anything." These all reflect this kind of inaction, and Wang Yisheng's final "victory" also comes from the so-called "inaction" in ordinary days. "It is. It can be seen that Wuwei does not mean to make people do nothing, but to ask people to put an end to external support, get rid of distracting thoughts, and return to the state of mind of a child. Only in this way can we hide our strengths and bide our time, accumulate self, persist in accumulation, constantly improve oneself, and realize action in inaction.

Feng Youlan explained the Taoist idea of "going to know": "To know is to forget to distinguish. If you forget all the differences, the rest is just the same." Wang Yisheng is just like this, indifferent to fame and fortune, tenaciously and calmly doing inaction , without fear of external wind and rain, stick to one's own tranquility, stand in an invincible position in life, and realize the unity of one's own spirit and reality.

3. Desire and Peace

In "Chess King", the old man, as a regional chess champion, commented on Wang Shengsheng's chess skills as "Hui Dao Zen in one furnace". Indeed, Wang Yisheng claimed to be proficient in chess because of the guidance of an "expert", and this expert was actually an old man who picked up junk. When it comes to victory, soften it. You must overcome the potential while transforming it. Softness is not weakness, it is tolerance, acceptance, containment, containment and transformation. Let the opponent enter your potential. Inaction is the Dao, and it is the immutability of chess luck." The Tao Te Ching reveals to us: "All things bear yin and embrace yang, and rush qi for harmony." or benefit at the expense of it.” Lao Tzu believes that neutralization is a kind of balance. If you increase a certain aspect, it will detract from it according to the laws of nature, and this balance is constantly changing and changing. Therefore, we should try our best not to go to extremes when dealing with people, but to pursue a kind of benign interaction, using softness to overcome rigidity, and using nothing to achieve anything.

Before he knew the old man, Wang Yisheng played chess with a sense of arrogance. Although he won chess, he was also praised as "the quality of chess must be inferior". After meeting the old man, he was frustrated, so he learned to be restrained. with humility. At the end of Wang Yisheng's one-to-nine wheel battle, the regional champion, who was holding an air, saw that his defeat was set, and "went to the battlefield in person" to make peace with Wang Yisheng. The sentence "Make it up" came out of this thin young man's mouth. It seemed to be light and light, but the shock it brought to people seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. "It's better to stay in the middle if you talk too much and say nothing." Wang Yisheng, who didn't have so many desires, and Wang Yisheng who was frustrated, it was precisely because he kept his inner balance that he was not arrogant or impetuous, that he could be more respected by others. Finally got the title of "chess king", although this is not something he values and cares about very much.

The end of "The King of Chess" is the most shocking and deeply rooted paragraph. The author wrote that the family is ruined and people are hoeing every day, but there is a real life in it. Food and clothing are the foundation, and there are human beings. Confined in it, and finally not very human. Each of us is unavoidable and runs for the world, but this does not mean that we have to follow the crowd or avoid the world, but to seek a better way of survival above reality, constantly seek the heart, and stand alone. To be at peace, to seek detachment from pragmatism, to obtain action from inaction, and to seek peace from desire. Wang Yisheng's ideal personality of "doing nothing and doing nothing" shows us that the mystery of "Tao" still has the significance of exploring and learning from contemporary times.

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