chapter9: Gun shoot the leading bird 

hi i'm Andy
today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together
in his book
it's written
all the people under heaven
said that the Dao
I mentioned is big, enormous
it doesn't look like anything
it's just because it's enormous
so it doesn't look like anything
if the Dao looks exactly like something
it would not matters long ago
I possessed three treasures
which had been treasured for a long time
the first one is called mercy
the second one is called thrifty
the third one is called do not there be the first one
because of mercy
so I could be brave
because thrifty
so I can be abundant
because I do not dare
to become the first one under heaven
so I could be the leader
of all the creatures under heaven
people today abandoned mercy and seek for bravery
they abandoned thrifty
and seeking for abandance
they abandoned last
and seeking for first
they are going to doom
in this paragraph
I just want to mention one point
in our Chinese culture
in China we have saying
枪打出头鸟
the gun shoot the leading bird
and another saying the
rafter beyond
the roof would be rotten first
so being first is very risky
this is like a research and development
you put a huge amount of money for research
maybe the product will be successful
or maybe maybe
it's a failure you waste
a lot of money
so i think Laozi's philosophy
really influenced the Chinese people and Chinese culture
so even today
you see China
they copy a lot of the technology and product from the West
because the ancient
Chinese civilization is based on agriculture
so Chinese people settle down farming
this is quite different with the marine civilization
so Chinese people are not very aggressive
they don't want to be the first
they want to follow other people and learn from them
it written
that mercy if you use the mercy to fight
and you will win
if you use the mercy to guard
you could guard steadily
if the heaven want to save a country
all the people have used mercy to cooperate
with the heaven to protect the country
this words emphasize the importance of mercy
so be mercy you could have a virtue
the virtue is the key for ruling
because in ancient China
every dynasty collapse
it doesn't matter it's peasant uprising or defeated by nomadics
it's all because they lose their virtues
the God of Heaven want to get rid of them
replace them with a new ruler
who have virtues
and show their benevolence and mercy to the people
okay
see you next time bye bye