吾日三省吾身章

Original text

曾子曰：“吾日三省吾身。为人谋，而不忠乎？与朋友交，而不信乎？传，不习乎？”

Translation

Tseng Tzu said, "I review my behavior several times a day to discover whether it happened that I served for somebody, yet I disobeyed the loyalty; or I affiliated with some friends, yet I violated the honesty; or I tried to instruct some pupils in something, yet I was not learned about it."

Annotation from research

In this section, foreigners can easily understand the former two clauses. The loyalty to the lord, and the faithfulness among friends, these two characters are certainly considered necessary for being a good person in any evalution system. However, why it is juxtaposed with the third one, which talks about something almost irrelevant from the social behavior, and focuses on the educational activity?

Well, it implies a very unique cultural aspect in Chinese society, that the relationship between teachers and students supports an extraordinarily big part of social relationship in China. The school system produces most politicians and thus has deep involvement in the policital system. And the friendship in China also has an obvious educational background. In the later chapters, we can see it more clearly. But here we can get the general idea that political system, ethical system and educational system are three fundamental systems in China society. We can see that the educational system has countless ties with other two systems, so it is the key one. From the educational tradition, we can deduce most Chinese cultural phenomenon, and it is sure the key to the door of the Chinese culture research, which is very different from the western ones.

巧言令色章

Original text

子曰：“巧言令色，鲜矣仁。”

Translation

Confucius said, "Hardly with any benevolence is one with adulatory words and flattering look."

Annotation from research

Here Confucius lists an counterexample for benevolence. If we can simplify the concept of benevolence to "the kindness toward people", we must look out so as not to be deceived by the nice appearance. Benevolence is created upon a basis of truth and empressement. Sometimes, adulatory words and flattering look is only a kind of etiquette. But if one takes the flattery as the only artifice for personal development, it goes too far. Confucius is by no means setting equality between etiquette and flattery, though these two looks very similar on the first sight. So, Confucius reminds the people in power not to be deceived when reviewing and appointing new political comers in this section as well.

其为人也孝弟章

Original text

有子曰：“其为人也孝弟，而好犯上者，鲜矣。不好犯上，而好作乱，未之有也。君子务本，本立而道生。孝弟也者，其为仁之本与？”

Translation

Yu-Tze said, "If one has filial piety and esteem toward his siblings, then very rarely will he be in favor of rebellion. If one is not in favor of rebellion, then never will he rise in revolt. The noble pays attention to the key. Only if the key is taken care, can the whole matter be in order. Isn't filial piety and esteem toward siblings the key to the benevolence?"

Annotation from research

Benevolence is one of the core concepts of the Confucianism. This sentence is not delivered by Confucius himself but by his student. But the underlying thought is consistent. That is, the family is the fundamental construction of a whole society. So, the education on common citizens should begin from the correct behaviors inside their families. The filial piety is the correct behavior from the children to their parents. The esteem toward one's siblings is the correct behavior among the ones of the same generation. Please pay attention that in traditional Chinese, esteem toward one's siblings is more likely to be the respect from younger siblings toward elder ones. So the general meaning of this sentence emphasizes an order, which points at the junior family members showing their respect to the senior ones. The order inside families will influence one's behavior when he enters the society. The one who is clear of such junior-senior order will rarely be bellicose toward the authorities, so as to avoid many unnecessary troubles. In the point of Confucianism's view, whether the senior is correct or incorrect is not very important. But the respect from the junior toward the senior is. We shall paticularly see the benefit from this thought, which puts the priority of keeping an order to the top of the list. It's sure to be unfair for some of the cases, that the junior is correct but senior is not. But it is much harder to define what is correctness than what is senior. What's more, the senior members are not necessarily taking the control, but they should receive respect because of their contribution. In other words, one should first know how to respect others, especially the senior members, and then be able to get support and put his talent to good use. To be more concise, one should first learn how to bear oneself, what the game rule is, rather than taking part in the game only with technic. Anyway, the philosophy of Confucianism is focusing on modus vivendi. So, here Yu-Tze helps us define an order engaging all to show respect from junior members to senior ones, beginning from one's infancy and inside one's family. We can clearly see from this section that Confucianism is not a bit abstract, it starts from the family affairs, but tries to extend the same principle to the whole society. It is comprehensible, as well as practical, so it encourages everyone to approach the realm of benevolence. Just like that, do you want to be benevolent? Show your respect first to your parents and elder siblings, then to your senior contacts, and the key to the benevolence is already in your hands.

学而时习之章

Original text

子曰：“学而时习之，不亦说乎？有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？”

Translation

Confucius said, "One studies and often takes reviews, isn't it the source of delight? One has men from the same line to visit from afar, isn't it the origin of happiness? One is unknown and stay without frustration, isn't it the expectation of the noble?"

Annotation from research

Every Chinese who has received compulsory education knows this section. It defines the channel where people get delight, happiness and nobleness from. Confucius maintains that the happiness shall be the result of people's cultivation. Internally, one should keep studying, and approach delight from the in-depth achievement in the knowledge of the world, or the improvement though the sentimentality, but not the superficial body entertainment or fortune written in water. Here Confucius also emphasizes the importance of repetition. People, especially the youth, are always too easy to be attracted by new ideas. However, only through repetition will one build a solid fundamental upon which can one flash real innovation. But only becoming a learned man is far from enough from Confucius' view. One should make friendship with others. Confucius does not use the item "friend" but a more precise word "men from the same line". For in traditional Chinese, friends can be divided into two types: "men from the same line" or "men of the same aspiration, comrade". Confucius means to point out only the common interest in study here. He also advocates that men from the same line should contact regularly, despite of the distance. A simple fact is that, men from the same line feel happy when getting together. Certainly, physical distance is no longer a problem today. But the laziness and the psychological distance become even greater gap, and prevent people from happiness. In ancient times, the communication system and public media is not developed. So, people can only become known over one-by-one introduction. This is also why Confucius would like learned people to go afar and pay visits to the men of the same line and get to know more potential opportunities. We can see in comparison with Bacon's great proverb "knowledge is power" that Confucius first point out that knowledge is firstly happiness, and only knowledge itself cannot become power. Certainly, both Bacon and Confucius agree that learned people will play the role of governor, but Confucius not only delivers an abstract concept, but also a practical methodology: one should build a solid knowledge and moral background, and one should contact more to touch base of transferring knowledge into power. And power comes out from the happiness. So we can see the advantage of the Confucius' political and ideological combination. He does not directly goes in power, but he does first retrieve happiness. The last sentence escalates the whole section, and proves again the idea that happiness is more than power. Even if one's merits are unrecognized, he should still remain in peace. The problems existing in the real world is mostly resulted from the chauvinism, not willing to leave any space on one or a nation's capability. Confucius tells that the happiness comes not from fighting, or showing the superiority, it comes from study and communication with men from the same line. So, nobleness is seen when one is unknown rather than one is admitted. Only if one understands the source of happiness is he recognized as a noble. It also implies that people are not in full control of destiny, but generally they can behave themselves. The noble is one of the core concept of Confucius', here we see its first appearance and explanation: the noble gets delight from studying, and puts attention to happiness more than recognition, willing to make great efforts and let it take its own course. In this very first section Confucius uses concise words to express his way of how people can live happy lives and which people are considered noble.

Modus vivendi for benefit worldwide

In China, Confucius is called The Sage. Considering there is no state religion, Confucius takes the place of grand justice over the country. As a matter of fact, China has a blend national composition from time immemorial. Many nations has their own religion, such as Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Taoism, and in modern times even Christianity. So, it is hard to imagine that China can live with only very little national estrangement and prejudice, let alone wars raised by national or religious cause. But it turns out to be the fact. What's incredible is that no matter which nation takes charge of China, it'll finally take Confucianism instead of their national worshipping idol as the token to reunite the people fractured during the war of the regime shifting. And it always works like a charm. Obviously, Confucius is not a the founder of a religion. He surpasses over the religions. It certainly does not mean the thoughts of Confucianists is better than the religion followers. It just goes along well with them. Confucius does not leave comments on whether there exists divinity or not. What he advocates is trying to educate people never to stop studying oneself, so as to reach a cultivated realm. Maybe this is an over-simplified statement. But one thing is for sure: Confucius cares about people themselves, and he is firmly convinced that only by never-stopped studying can people distinguish the correct from the incorrect; and only if the individuals have sense about the etiquette of the life, can the society be properly governed. Confucianism builds the political system upon the ritual ceremonies, and puts the people at the central position. By evaluation of the Confucianists, benevolence is over the most important and ideal quality that one should possess. Confucianism does allow war to be an option as one of the solutions for some problems, but almost always the last one. In a word, Confucianism mainly relies on the modus vivendi, and other behaviors for larger group are based on it. It really makes sense. For individuals, or families, are the cells of the societies organized in any form. That's why Confucianism is not only a window for one to get to know China and its society, but also a panacea for any politicians or managers facing any kind of headaches in people management. Very often do we think the problems are with a program or system. But actually every program and system is carried out by specific people. In most western countries and some of the Asian countries, people become fanatical followers for laws and democratic rights, which gradually expose their Achilles' heels. When lawmakers and carriers stand on the side of the rich, or the people in power, they bring ordinary civilians merely more suffers and unfairenesses, and democracy, in most cases, is only a game for those who can operate the result. However, Confucianism tells us to keep a good psychology when not treated fully fairly, and never to behave too aggressive. We can see the value of this in the world nowadays full of conflictions and massacres over innocents. If everybody knows what is correct and behaves in correct ways, no conflictions any more. That is really a common sense but too few people are able to recognize it worth cherishing so much.

That's why I feel it my duty introducing the Confucianism at this time point. The text chosen is the famous The Analects of Confucius. The verbatims of Confucius are seen in many documents of ancient China, such as Lieh-Tze and The Doctrine of the Mean. But The Analects of Confucius is among the first ones, and also the most complete one. Many sentences within the book are taken as the proverbs which still have unimaginable influences on the Chinese behaviors and values today. I am not going to only translate the texts. I'd like to make comments on each piece of text using plain English to explain how it is applicable to ordinary life. Without special training, even Chinese can hardly understand the highly polished sentences of which The Analects of Confucius consists. I believe that many people can do better translations than me do. But I am sure I can make better explanations than most people, since I have good understanding of both Chinese and western life styles and the ways of thinking. And, needless to say, bridging the gap between these two counterparts is only too important. A common saying is translators, traitors. I hope my notes can bring all a better understanding of the original text of Confucius, a sage from China, whose idea not only will immediately help you improve your personal life become more happy and decent, but also surely benefit a whole lot if you persevere Confucianism as a long-term philosophy.

《 〈论语〉译注与研究》博序

余自幼好读书，童年幸得家门书香，得以博览群书。然幼年心智，到底不得求甚解。只诵得古训，渐见世间凡事、人心不古，求新异者得其腾达，守古训者反遭贬谪。少年弱冠，习从西学。西学格物讲求理法，无论人情。求学有专长，非求仁义礼数。一时行得，便觉自满；一时失利，心有怅怅。而今世界，西学之道通行，国学之途坎坷。余已获西式教育之工程学位，又何以作不时之论，重提四书要义？而今文史专科人才济济，独缺一家之言哉？

古语有云，半部《论语》治天下。中国之天下，亡有国界。而天下大局，则起于修身。唯有人之为仁人，方得齐家、治国、平天下。总是从心怀恻隐伊始，以敬为先、以礼相待。不求分割精研，但求顺其本心。若得见用，当仁不让；若非知之，退而自得。余观今之中国求学，但发诸利心。教授以后生为生利工具，后生以教授为文凭绊石。天赋异廪者，恃才在身，待人倨傲。有一发本事，恐人不知者众矣。通西方之学，又悟国学之道者，吾未之见也。某虽不才，愿躬身为作，求一家之言透网路之便，达于诸学。

《论语》一书，言已简极。圣人纶音，到底今日不灭。余以为，各代国人自当有各代译本，以为是时国本。而余之发端，则意在播之于国际。是故，余将试以各章句为源，辟之冷义，译为当代英文。并敢发自家研究心得，亦以英文书之。余之大义，则在于使非本国人亦知当代中国之自古行事逻辑，以便国际交流。日本之武士道，亦受益本书良多。新渡户稻造阐《武士道》弘扬大和精神。而我巍巍中华两千余年前，精神奠基即告完成。只在今世，未有人再发新论。有之，请自余始。

是为自序，时丙戌年甲午月己丑日。