A statue of Confucius at the Chinese Garden in Rizal Park (or Luneta), Manila. (Image from OzSpeak.Livejournal.Com)
Confucius was a Chinese philosopher who is well known for his influence in East Asian culture. He was born c. 551 BC in the state of Lu, in present-day Shandong province, China. He was born with the name Kong Qiu (孔丘 Kǒng Qiū). But he is known by the name Kong Fuzi, (孔夫子 Kǒng Fūzǐ) which means ‘Master Kong’, which was spelled in English as “Confucius”.
As a young man he held several minor government positions and eventually becoming minister of justice of Lu state. But he old held these posts intermittently because of conflicts with his superiors. During his time the competing Chinese states began to undermine the rule of the Chou Dynasty, which had been in power for 500 years. Traditional Chinese values and morality began to decline. Confucius saw this as an opportunity to reinforce traditional Chinese values. His teachings include loyalty to one’s family, ancestor worship, respect for elders by children, obedience to husbands by their wives. He also taught a form of the Golden Rule: “Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you.”
As a young man he held several minor government positions and eventually becoming minister of justice of Lu state. But he old held these posts intermittently because of conflicts with his superiors. During his time the competing Chinese states began to undermine the rule of the Chou Dynasty, which had been in power for 500 years. Traditional Chinese values and morality began to decline. Confucius saw this as an opportunity to reinforce traditional Chinese values. His teachings include loyalty to one’s family, ancestor worship, respect for elders by children, obedience to husbands by their wives. He also taught a form of the Golden Rule: “Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you.”
By the time he died in 479 BC at the age of 72, it is said that he had taught a total of three thousand disciples.
A century after his Confucius’
death came Meng Ke. As a child it was said to have been a great imitator. His
mother was a poor widow and they lived in a cemetery. When she saw her son
imitating the paid mourners he saw there, she decided it was not the right
place for her son. They moved to a marketplace and the boy started to imitate
the cries of the merchants; the mother also decided it was not the right place
for his son. Finally, his mother decided to move near a school. The child began
imitating the scholars he saw there and eventually became one himself. When he
grew up he became known as Mèng Zǐ (or ‘Master Meng’); called in English as Mencius.
Mencius began to be interested in the teachings of Confucius. During his time interest in Confucius began to wane. He gathered the disciples of Confucius and recorded what they remembered about their Master’s teachings. These were organized into books and the most famous was The Analects (or Lún Yǔ in Chinese; meaning ‘Selected Sayings’). Mencius was tireless in spreading the teachings of Confucius.
Confucius was not a religious leader nor did he intend to establish a religion. Eventually he was declared the “First Sage of China” and Mencius as the “Second Sage of China”. People began venerating and worshipping his as a god. Sacrifices were offered to him and temples built for his worship. But he would leave behind a system of philosophy called Confucianism which was very influential to the culture of China, Japan, Korea, and the countries of Indochina.
The Analects of Confucius
(Excerpts)
IV
(1) THE MASTER said: “Love makes a spot
beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love, has he got wisdom?”
(2) The
Master said: “Loveless men cannot bear need long, they cannot bear fortune long.
Loving hearts find peace in love; clever heads find profit in it.”
(3) The Master said: “Love can alone love
others, or hate others.”
(4) The
Master said: “A heart set on love will do no wrong.”
(5) The
Master said: “Wealth and honours are what men desire; but abide not in them by
help of wrong. Lowliness and want are hated of men; but forsake them not by
help of wrong.
“Shorn
of love, is a gentleman worthy the name? Not for one moment may a gentleman sin
against love; not in flurry and haste, nor yet in utter overthrow.”
(6) The Master said: “A friend to love, a foe to
evil, I have yet to meet. A friend to love will set nothing higher. In love’s
service, a foe to evil will let no evil touch him. Were a man to give himself
to love, but for one day, I have seen no one whose strength would fail him.
Such men there may be, but I have not seen one.”
(7) The Master said: “A man and his faults are
of a piece. By watching his faults we learn whether love be his.”
(8) The Master said: “To learn the truth at
daybreak and die at eve were enough.”
(9) The Master said: “A scholar in search of
truth who is ashamed of poor clothes and poor food it is idle talking to.”
(10) The Master said: “A gentleman has no likes
and no dislikes below heaven. He follows right.”
(11) The Master said: “Gentlemen cherish worth;
the vulgar cherish dirt. Gentlemen trust in justice; the vulgar trust in
favour.”
(12) The Master said: “The chase of gain is rich
in hate.”
(13) The Master said: “What is it to sway a
kingdom by courteous yielding? Who cannot by courteous yielding sway a kingdom,
what can he know of courtesy?”
(14) The Master said: “Be not concerned at want of
place; be concerned that thou stand thyself. Sorrow not at being unknown, but
seek to be worthy of note.”
(15) The Master said: “One thread, Shen [a
disciple of Tseng-tzu], runs through all my teaching.”
“Yes,” said Tseng-tzu (another disciple).
After the Master had left, the disciples asked what was
meant.
Tseng-tzu said: “The Master’s teaching all hangs on
faithfulness and fellow-feeling.”
(16) The Master said: “A gentleman considers what
is right; the vulgar consider what will pay.”
(17) The Master said: “At sight of worth, think to
grow like it. When evil meets thee, search thine own heart.”
(18) The Master said: “A father or mother may be
gently chidden. If they will not bend, be the more lowly, but persevere; nor
murmur if trouble follow.”
(19) The Master said: “Whilst thy father and
mother live, do not wander afar. If thou must travel, hold a set course.”
(20) The Master said: “If for three years a son do
not forsake his father’s ways, he may be called dutiful.”
(21) The Master said: “A father’s and a mother’s
age must be borne in mind; with joy on the one hand, fear on the other.”
(22) The Master said: “Men of old were loth to
speak; lest a word that they could not make good should shame them.”
(23) The Master said: “Who contains himself goes
seldom wrong.”
(24) The Master said: “A gentleman wishes to be
slow to speak and quick to act.”
(25) The Master said: “Good is no hermit. It has
ever neighbours.”
(26) Tzu-yu said: “Preaching to princes brings
disgrace, nagging at friends estrangement.”
VII
(1) THE MASTER said: “A teller and not a maker,
one who trusts and loves the past; I may be likened to our old P´eng [a
disciple].”
(2) The Master said: “A silent communer, an ever
hungry learner, a still unflagging teacher; am I any of these?”
(3) The Master said: “Neglect of what is good in
me; want of thoroughness in study; failure to do the right when told me; lack
of strength to overcome faults, these are my sorrows.”
(4) In his free moments the Master was easy and
cheerful.
(5) The Master said: “How deep is my decay! It
is long since I saw the Duke of Chou in a dream.”
(6) The Master said: “Will the right; hold to
good won; rest in love; move in art.”
(7) The Master said: “From the man who paid in
dried meat upwards, I have withheld teaching from no one.”
(8) The Master said: “Only to those fumbling do
I open, only for those stammering do I find the word. From him who cannot turn
the whole when I lift a corner I desist.”
(9) When eating beside a mourner the Master
never ate his fill. On days when he had been wailing, the Master did not sing.
(10) The Master said to Yen Yüan: “I and thou alone can both fill a post
when given one and live unseen when passed by.”
Tzu-lu
said: “Had ye to command three armies, Sir, who should go with you?”
“No
man,” said the Master, “ready to fly unarmed at a tiger, or plunge into a river
and die without a pang should be with me; but one, rather, who is wary before a
move and gains his end by well-laid plans.”
(11) The Master said: “Were shouldering a whip a
sure road to riches, I would turn carter: but since there is no sure road, I
tread the path I love.”
(12) The Master gave heed to devotions, war, and
sickness.
(13) When the Master was in Ch´i for three months
after hearing the Shao played he knew not the taste of meat.
“I did not suppose,” he said, “that music could touch such
heights.”
(14) Jan Yu said: “Is the Master for the King of
Wei?”
“I will ask him, said Tzu-kung.
He went in, and said: “What kind of men were
Po-yi and Shu-ch´i?”
“Worthy
men of yore,” said the Master.
“Did
they rue the past?”
“They
sought love and found it; what had they to rue?”
Tzu-kung
went out, and said: “The Master is not on his side.”
The
Master said: “Living on coarse rice and water, with bent arm for pillow, mirth
may be ours; but ill-gotten wealth and honours are to me a wandering cloud.”
(15) The Master said: “Given a few more years,
making fifty for the study of the Yi [the Book of Changes], I might be purged
from gross sin.”
(16) The Master liked to talk of poetry, history,
and the upkeep of courtesy. Of all these he was fond of talking.
(17) The Duke of She asked Tzu-lu about Confucius.
Tzu-lu
did not answer.
The
Master said: “Why couldst thou not say: ‘He is a man so eager that he forgets
to eat, whose cares are lost in triumph, unmindful of approaching age’?”
(18) The Master said: “I was not born to
understanding. I loved the past, and questioned it earnestly.”
(19) The Master never spake of ghosts or strength,
crime or spirits.
(20) The Master said: “Walking three together I am
sure of teachers. I pick out the good and follow it; I see the bad and shun
it.”
(21) The Master said: “Heaven planted worth in me;
what harm can come of Huan T´ui?” [An army officer who sent men to kill
Confucius.]
(22) The Master said: “My boys, do ye think that I
hide things from you? I hide nothing. One who keeps from his boys nought that
he does, such is Ch´iu.” [Confucius himself].
(23) The four things the Master taught were
culture, conduct, faithfulness, and truth.
(24) The Master said: “A holy man I shall not live
to see; enough could I find a gentleman! A good man I shall not live to see;
enough could I find a steadfast one! But when nothing poses as something, cloud
as substance, want as riches, steadfastness must be rare.”
(25) The Master angled, but did not fish with a
net; he shot, but not at birds sitting.
(26) The Master said: “There may be men who act
without understanding why. I do not. To listen much, pick out the good and
follow it; to see much and ponder it: this comes next to understanding.”
(27) It was ill talking to the Hu villagers. A lad
having been admitted, the disciples wondered.
The
Master said: “I allow his coming, not what is to come. Why be so harsh? If a
man cleanse himself to gain admission, I admit his cleanness, but go not bail
for his past.”
(28) The Master said: “Is love so far a thing? I
yearn for love, and lo! love is come.”
(29) A
judge of Ch´en asked whether Duke of Chao knew courtesy.
Confucius
answered: “He knew courtesy.”
After
Confucius had left, the judge beckoned Wu-ma Ch´i [a disciple] to his side, and
said: “I had heard that gentlemen are of no party, but are they too for party?
The prince married a Wu, of the same name as himself, and called her Miss Tzu
of Wu. If the prince knew courtesy, who does not know courtesy?” [In China, it
is against custom for a man to marry a woman of the same surname.]
When
Wu-ma Ch´i told this to the Master, he said: “How lucky I am! If I make a slip,
men are sure to know it!”
(30) When any one sang to the Master, and sang
well, he would make him repeat it and join in.
(31) The Master said: “I have no more culture than
others: to live as a gentleman is not yet mine.”
(32) The Master said: “How dare I lay claim to
holiness or love? A man of endless craving I might be called, an unflagging
teacher; but nothing more.”
“That
is just what we disciples cannot learn,” said Kung-hsi Hua.
(33) The Master being very ill, Tzu-lu asked leave
to pray.
The
Master said: “Is it the custom?”
“It
is,” answered Tzu-lu. “The Memorials say, ‘Pray to the spirits in heaven above
and on earth below.’”
The
Master said: “Long lasting has my prayer been.”
(34) The Master said: “Waste begets self-will;
thrift begets meanness: but better be mean than self-willed.”
(35) The Master said: “A gentleman is calm and
spacious: the vulgar are always fretting.”
(36) The Master was friendly, yet dignified; he
inspired awe, but not fear; he was respectful, yet easy.
“The Sayings of Confucius” (1909-1914). Harvard Classics Vol. 44, Part 1. Online edition: http://www.bartleby.com/44/1/
R E F E R E N C E S
“Confucius”. Biography.Com.
Accessed: December 4, 2013. URL: http://www.biography.com/people/confucius-9254926.
“Confucius”. Wikipedia.
Accessed: December 4, 2013, URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius.
“Mencius”.
Wikipedia. Accessed: December 5, 2013. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencius.
“The Sayings of Confucius” (1909-1914). Harvard Classics Vol. 44, Part 1. Online edition: http://www.bartleby.com/44/1/
