Daylight Lantern - Human Loss and Human Pursuit

Author: Lin Zhiping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Han Feizi once told a thought-provoking story: There was a man who wanted to buy a pair of shoes. So he drew a shoe pattern according to his own feet and prepared to use it when buying the shoes. Later, he passed by a shoe store and fell in love with a pair of shoes. After trying them on, everything was satisfactory. Just as he was about to pay and buy the shoes, he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no! I forgot to bring the shoe pattern!" So he put down the shoes, rushed home, fetched the pattern, and then hurried back to buy the shoes. But when he reached the shoe store, it was already closed. Unable to buy the shoes, he left with great disappointment and sighed deeply. Where was the problem with this man? Right, the problem was that he only trusted the shoe pattern and did not trust his own feet. Two thousand years later, rereading this story still feels profoundly meaningful. Living in a modern society that emphasizes objectivity, we increasingly trust shoe patterns but no longer trust our own feet. We live in a completely objective world, and we have long been accustomed to seeking objective shoe patterns instead of relying on the feet of the subject. We only look at what people "have," but never ask what they "are": We only recognize people from the outside of the object, but never start from the subject to understand them. The loss of human subjectivity makes people no longer believe in themselves and forever lose the opportunity to know and face themselves. As a result, people lose the courage to exist and live in confusion and pain due to not recognizing themselves. P134-135