Color Version 60 Famous People You Should Know in Your Life

Author: Zhai Wenming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: 60 Famous People You Should Know in Your Lifetime, Do You Know Who They Are? The 60 famous people selected in this book are those with the greatest reputation and deepest influence in politics, economy, culture, art, military, religion, and science, and who hold the most inspiring and reference significance for modern people. Through columns such as "Reason for Selection," "Famous Person Profile," "Key to Success," "Timeless Quotes," and "Life Enlightenment," readers are guided to interpret famous people from multiple perspectives. Over 200 exquisite images complement the text, providing readers with a strong visual experience and ample space for imagination. The power of words and the color of images flow together, beginning a pleasant colorful reading journey. Knowing some famous people in one's lifetime can help understand the history and culture of different eras through them, or learn from their successes and failures to gain valuable life insights, which is of great significance for personal growth, work, life, and many other aspects. For this reason, this book selects 60 famous people who have the greatest reputation and influence in politics, economy, culture, art, military, religion, and science, and hold the most inspiring and reference significance for modern people. The editors strive to create a colorful, three-dimensional, and highly artistic reading space through the integration of writing style, exquisite images, and design, guiding readers to understand the thoughts, wisdom, and lives of famous people from different angles, helping them draw life wisdom, and allowing readers to gain more cultural enrichment, aesthetic enjoyment, and imaginative space while easily acquiring knowledge.
Laozi lived during the late Spring and Autumn period and once served as the "Guardian of the Archives" in the Zhou Dynasty, essentially a royal librarian. This position was usually held by highly learned individuals. Laozi dedicated his life to studying knowledge, without concerning himself with personal gains or losses. He was a profoundly knowledgeable figure, and it is said that Confucius once sought guidance from him in matters of ritual. In 516 BC, an unprecedented turmoil occurred within the Zhou royal family. The noble prince Zhao lost in a conflict and fled the capital with all the archives. With no "archives" left to manage, Laozi rode a green ox and left the Eastern Zhou capital of Luoyi, intending to travel westward through the Hangu Pass. When he reached the Hangu Pass, the gatekeeper Yin Xi warmly welcomed him and sincerely invited him to record his wisdom to be passed down to future generations. Laozi then wrote the Dao De Jing, a 5,000-character text divided into two parts. After completing the book, he mounted his green ox again and left the Hangu Pass, never to be seen again. Laozi's thoughts are primarily concentrated in the Dao De Jing. He proposed the highest philosophical concept—the "Dao" (the Way)—and believed that the world originated from the Dao, expressed as "The Dao gives rise to One, One gives rise to Two, Two gives rise to Three, and Three gives rise to all things." Laozi's philosophical system is rooted in the Dao, which is why he is revered as the founder of Taoism. The nature of the "Dao" in Laozi's philosophy is natural, and he proposed the concept of the "naturalness of Heaven." He believed that the operation of heaven and earth is natural and does not rely on external forces. Humans, too, should be natural, like all things in the universe. Life must eliminate subjective and external interference to develop naturally. In Laozi's philosophical system, heaven, earth, and all things in the universe form an integrated whole. This broke the traditional idealistic worldview of ancient philosophy, which centered on politics and ethics. Laozi believed that the Dao precedes heaven and earth and is the source of all things in the universe, with the principle that "humans follow the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows naturalness." This thought is essentially the earliest expression of ancient China's simple cosmological view of "unity between heaven and humanity," a concept later inherited and developed by Zhuangzi. Laozi's philosophical system contains the rudiments of dialectical thought. He believed that all things in the universe exist as opposites, such as yin and yang, hardness and softness, strength and weakness, rise and decline. Opposite forces are complementary to each other, expressed as "existence gives rise to non-existence, difficulty gives rise to ease, and length gives rise to shortness," and they can transform into one another, such as "things grow old when they are strong," "armies perish when they are strong," and "trees break when they are too strong."