Luo Yin (833~909) was a poet and thinker in the Tang Dynasty. His courtesy name was Zhaojian, and he was from Xincheng (now Fuyang County) in Zhejiang. His original name was Heng, and he changed his name to Yin because he failed the imperial examination ten times.
He held successive official positions such as Qiantang County Magistrate, Secretary of the Navy Command, Military Advisor, Assistant Compiler, and Censor-in-Chief, and was awarded the gold and purple court dress. His poems and articles were mainly satirical. In philosophy, he advocated the integration of Confucianism and Taoism. His work Liangtongshu (The Book of Two Unities) consists of 10 chapters. The first 5 chapters of the upper volume conclude with the words of Laozi, and the last 5 chapters of the lower volume conclude with the words of Confucius. "Its theory holds that Confucianism and Taoism are consistent, hence the name 'Two Unities'" (Siku Quanshu Zongmu (General Catalogue of the Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature), Volume 151).
He integrated Confucian "benevolence" with Taoist "kindness", "gentleness", and "frugality" into one, regarding it as the highest virtue.
He said: "What is called virtue? It is nothing but kindness and benevolence.... Therefore, one with great virtue cultivates oneself, and uses gentleness and benevolence to govern subordinates" (Liangtongshu·Qiangruo (The Book of Two Unities·Strength and Weakness)), "Thus, ancient sages and virtuous monarchs focused on cultivating the virtue of frugality" (Ibid., Sunyi (Gain and Loss)).
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On the one hand, he advocated Confucian benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and music; on the other hand, he advocated Taoist ideas of "not being the first in the world" and inaction, asserting that "if the world practices inaction, all people will benefit from it, which is as great as the sun and the moon" (Ibid.).
His Liangtongshu developed Laozi's simple dialectical thought. The titles of each section in the book are all opposite concepts, such as "Guijian" (Nobility and Humility), "Qiangruo" (Strength and Weakness), "Sunyi" (Gain and Loss), "Jingman" (Respect and Contempt), "Houbo" (Thickness and Thinness), "Liluan" (Order and Chaos), "Deshi" (Gain and Loss), "Zhenwei" (Truth and Falsehood), "Tongyi" (Sameness and Difference), "Aizeng" (Love and Hatred), etc. He believed that opposite things and phenomena are not fixed and unchangeable, but can be transformed.
For example, regarding nobility and humility, he affirmed that the monarch is noble and the people are humble, but if a monarch "has no virtue to be praised, then his nobility is not worthy of being noble"; if the people "have the way to be adopted, then their humility is not real humility" (Guijian (Nobility and Humility)).
Another example is that he believed the length of a person's lifespan is related to the degree of care for their body. If one is over-nourished and living conditions are too superior, then thickness will turn into thinness; conversely, thinness can turn into thickness. He said: "Everyone desires to be well-nourished, but does not know that being over-nourished can lead to poor health; everyone hates to be poorly nourished, but does not know that proper frugality can lead to good health" (Houbo (Thickness and Thinness)).
As for love and hatred, he thought that love contains hatred (flatterers lead the ruler to injustice, which is actually great hatred); hatred contains love (loyal ministers remonstrate against the ruler's evils, which is actually great love). In addition, sameness contains difference: "There can be no sameness without difference" (Tongyi (Sameness and Difference)).
He also affirmed that contradictions such as flexion and extension are interrelated and conditional on each other. He said: "The looper caterpillar seeks to stretch, but it is because of its flexion; the bird of prey is about to attack, it must first lower itself" (Jingman (Respect and Contempt)). His biography can be found in Volume 24 of Old History of the Five Dynasties. His works include Luo Yin Ji (Collected Works of Luo Yin) (published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1983).
