Chapter 118: The Concept of Opposition

Inside the faculty dormitory building at Tsinghua University.

An unexpected event occurred tonight.

Professor Zhuang's favorite students: the elder sister is named Zhou Qing, and the younger sister is named Zhou Qingqing.

The faculty dormitory gate belongs to the residential area; usually, it's not locked, and one only needs to register.

While registering, the two women specifically registered for Building 808, which is Professor Zhuang's floor; they encountered strange looks from other professors.

Only because an embarrassing incident involving ethics and decorum beyond the scope of teacher and student had occurred here before.

Professor Zhuang didn't care about professional ethics at all; he didn't even explain and went straight upstairs.

On the contrary, the two women explained the reason to a group of professors in the dead of winter.

Those professors watching the drama only then realized that the three of them were rushing to watch a livestream called "Paradox Decryption."

"So they're watching a livestream. What's so good about that? Not attending to proper duties."

"The guy is already a Gold Medalist; do you want him to become an International Professor?"

"What's so good about a decryption livestream from a local Television Station? No matter how good he is, can he decrypt the Grandfather Paradox?"

"Don't say that, he actually solved it. Stop talking, it's quite cold. I'm going back to check out the livestream the sisters mentioned too."

Unintentionally, Professor Zhuang's behavior brought a wave of authoritative traffic to Jiang Zhe.

...

In the studio.

As soon as 8:00 PM arrived, Jiang Zhe's image appeared on the screen as scheduled.

He smiled slightly and spoke: "Hello, viewers. This Saturday, I will bring you the follow-up to Zhuang Zhou Dreams of a Butterfly."

"Yes, as you all guessed—"

"Today, I will completely resolve Professor Zhuang's dream!"

Less than a minute after the broadcast started, the number of people in front of TVs and in the livestream room soared rapidly, reaching a staggering 6 million and 2 million respectively.

The livestream room immediately boiled over with excitement.

"No wonder there was no preview; you really want to resolve Professor Zhuang's dream!"

"Today wasn't a waste of waiting. I can't wait to know the conclusion of that dream."

"Quick, quick, quick, get to the point!"

...

A day's time is neither long nor short.

But for the die-hard fans, it was extremely long; finally, the truth of Zhuang Zhou Dreams of a Butterfly was coming!

At this time, in Room 808 of the Tsinghua University faculty dormitory.

Lying on the sofa, Professor Zhuang looked curious. "Does he really want to break through my dream? Although I dream of a butterfly, which isn't as bizarre as the Brain in a Vat, to break through this, you have to prove—the illusion and reality of the world."

"Could it be..."

"You really have that level of skill?"

In front of a Gold Medal Professor, even Professor Zhuang didn't believe from the bottom of his heart that Jiang Zhe could decrypt it.

Because only by starting from illusion and reality can it be broken.

But these two points, given to any scientist in the world, none could explain them.

Because those living within the universe cannot give answers from outside the universe; this is the limitation of Zhuang Zhou Dreams of a Butterfly.

On the sofa nearby, Zhou Qing was massaging Professor Zhuang's feet because his gout had flared up.

Hearing this, she looked pensive. "Perhaps Jiang Zhe can analyze the truth and falsehood of the world from another angle."

Hearing this, the younger sister Zhou Qingqing shook her head. "Jiang Zhe can't do it. As the professor said, those within the universe do not know of things outside the universe."

"Sister, you're underestimating those physics giants. We haven't seen the unobservable universe; so how did physicists figure out that the unobservable universe actually consists of those further and further galaxies that have already left the range of the Observable Universe?"

"This... don't say that to me. We're watching Jiang Zhe, not physics."

Indeed, deep down, none of the three believed Jiang Zhe could decrypt it.

Even...

The three of them couldn't even find an entry point!

Without even an entry point, how can one discuss the so-called truth?

On the screen.

Jiang Zhe began to explain.

"In the last episode, I raised three questions."

"The first question has been resolved. The second question is whether a butterfly dreams. This isn't even a question, but common sense: it doesn't, because a butterfly's brain organs do not support dreaming."

"The third question: why can't humans distinguish between truth and falsehood?"

"Is it a problem with human cognition, or a problem with human concepts?"

"To solve it, one naturally has to distinguish between [truth and falsehood] and [reality and illusion]."

"First? Can we distinguish between truth and falsehood?"

"Is it that we really can't distinguish, or that we are unwilling to distinguish?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the audience showed expressions of thought.

Is it that we really can't distinguish, or that we are unwilling to distinguish?

This sentence had quite a bit of Jiang-style philosophy in it, raising expectations for many.

Facing the camera, Jiang Zhe continued to explain.

"If I, Jiang Zhe, were a butterfly, then to me—Professor Zhuang's world would be virtual."

"If I were Professor Zhuang, to me—the butterfly's world would be virtual."

"This is [Opposition]."

"We humans always like to categorize everything into [Opposition]."

"Like black and white, good and evil, true and false, tall and short, fat and thin, old and young, wise and foolish, and so on."

"These behaviors are actually binary oppositions bestowed by us humans; for the binary oppositions of all things in the world, value is not bestowed upon them."

At this point, Jiang Zhe frowned, realizing this information wasn't friendly to most of the audience; it was somewhat profound, and there were too many layers to explain in detail.

He simply shook his head. "Forget it, I won't talk about those. It's too profound. It would be appropriate for a university public lecture, but not quite suitable here."

As soon as he said this, the audience's mouths twitched. They had just heard something fresh, and he suddenly stopped?

"You understand, but we don't!"

"Don't stop; what exactly does opposition mean?"

"It's simple; it belongs to binary opposition. The host is saying that this thought of opposition is our human cognition of all things."

"Upstairs, you're wrong. Yang flourishing and Yin declining, Yin flourishing and Yang declining; the extreme turning into its opposite—this is the law of opposition in the operation of all things in nature."

"Exactly. The oppositions like good and evil, black and white that Host Jiang mentioned, especially truth and falsehood—the [Opposition] of these terms is what we humans label for all things. The [Opposition] labeled by humans does not belong to the laws of [Opposition] in the operation of all things; rather, we have attached labels to some things and then raised questions about the labels we bestowed. Ultimately, the questions raised are not necessarily the laws of opposition the universe should have."

"Right. Addition and subtraction, multiplication and division in mathematics, positrons and electrons in physics, and so on; these are all operational laws of opposition that have always existed for all things besides humans."

"Keep it simple, big shots! I'm not freaking Jiang Zhe, I don't understand!"

"No need for simple. It's just saying—the [Opposition] of the labels we attach ourselves is not necessarily the [Opposition] derived during the operation of the universe. Do you understand? Like natural disasters: mudslides, flash floods, volcanic eruptions, and so on. At first glance, most people wouldn't think they are evil, right? Just as we wouldn't think the Earth is kind if it's free of disasters, right?"

"Right, because it's an opposition produced by nature itself. And then?"

"So, these natural disasters are signs that have always existed within the universe. The word 'good and evil' has no value at the level of the Earth; it's a law of nature. If we forcibly attach a [Kind] label to the Earth's peace and an [Evil] label to the Earth's disasters, then these labels are invalid because they are [Oppositions] bestowed by us humans, not [Oppositions] existing within nature itself."

"Hiss, it really is freaking profound. It was fine when he wasn't talking, but once he did, my head started hurting."

...

The audience was grateful Jiang Zhe didn't continue; otherwise, it would have cost them more brain cells.

On the big screen.

Jiang Zhe held his earpiece, hearing the director's report on the comments, and found that many people didn't quite understand.

So he began to explain.

"Actually, everyone doesn't need to look too deeply into it; it's the characteristics of human nature at work."

"For example: everyone is a good person, and then everyone insists on finding a bad person."

"Then you really find a bad person, and that bad person has committed murder and arson."

"Okay, you've found the bad person."

"Then you look deeper and find that the murderer was actually a chivalrous hero; he killed a landlord who bullied and harmed the common people. The killer killed a family to rid the people of a pest."

"Okay, now you change again and say: [He is a hero]."

"Then, you look even deeper."

"You find the history of that landlord merchant. A few years ago, that landlord had helped those common people and saved many lives."

"Okay, now you change again and say: [It turns out the landlord was also a good person]."

"And then?"

"The landlord's family fortune was running low and he couldn't continue to help. Then, some of the people who had received the landlord's kindness starved to death. Some of those people complained about why the landlord didn't help them anymore, thinking that by not saving them, the landlord was doing something bad."

"Then, someone among those people stepped forward and killed the landlord's family."

"Okay, now you change again and say: [It turns out that chivalrous hero was a bad person, and the landlord was a good person]."

"Okay, you continue to look deeper."

"You find that the history of how the landlord built his fortune involved sucking the blood of countless people. At this point, you'll say: [It turns out the landlord was a bad person; he only helped the common people after sucking their blood]."

"Okay, you continue to dig deep."

"You find that the landlord wasn't a landlord before, but one of the common people. In the early years, he did good deeds while he was a commoner."

"Okay, you change again and say: [It turns out the landlord was a commoner before; the landlord was a good person in the past]."

At this point, Jiang Zhe looked innocent and shrugged, "So, what did everyone learn?"

"Naturally, why should we distinguish between right and wrong for matters, label things as good or bad, and label people as good or evil?"

"When you trace back to the top-level starting point of a certain event to look deeply into it..."

"You will be surprised to find—you simply cannot distinguish who is good and who is evil."

"Isn't that right?"

As the series of words fell, Professor Zhuang Zhou couldn't help but grin.

"This little guy has quite a deep understanding of the tao te ching by that Gold Medal old man Professor Li Er from Dabei University!"

"The two words 'truth and falsehood' are indeed [Oppositions] labeled by us humans for all things. In essence, there's no need to look too deeply; that's why I didn't look too deeply after having that dream."

"But you're on a show now; it won't do if you don't look deeply!"

"I'd like to see how you dig into it to reach a conclusion."

He had originally decided to just take a quick look at the livestream; who would have thought that Jiang Zhe really did have some skill, and not a small amount at that.

Professor Zhuang decided to stay a bit longer and continue watching.

Hearing everything, the massive audience was instantly dumbfounded and speechless.

They were stunned for a moment, and a large number of viewers sucked in a breath of cold air.