夫子至于是邦也章

Original text

子禽问于子贡曰：“夫子至于是邦也，必闻其政。求之与？抑与之与？”子贡曰：“夫子温、良、恭、俭、让以得之。夫子之求之也，其诸异乎人之求之与！”

Translation

Tzu-Ch'in asked Tzu Kung, "Always did our teacher know the politics of a country when he paid a visit to it. Did he seek it out by himself, or he was told without an exploration?" Tzu Kung replied, "Our teacher got such knowledge via his gentleness, savoir-vivre, submissiveness, abstention and humbleness. Isn't there great difference between our teacher's way to seek and others'?"

Annotation from research

This versus is quite interesting. It is a direct quotation from the conversation taken place between two students of Confucius to profile him. I don’t think there will be many employees to have such respectful appraises for their bosses.

But Confucius didn’t have much political achievement during his life. He was rather an educator than a politician. However, he was popular among the seigneurs and was often invited to share his ideas. From many other materials and in the Analects itself, we can find many such records. Here the question asked by Tzu-Ch'in is thought-provoking. Why it is important to know how Confucius got the knowledge about the politics that ruled in countries he visited? As it was said in the previous versus by Tseng Tzu, Confucians don’t deliver his knowledge and ideas before he is learned about it. How to get such the knowledge about the politics? It is no good inquiring from the governors directly, since no governors would be willing to share a stranger with real problems. And it is impossible to get any idea from the people other than the governors since the reality is always concealed from them. The answer conducted by Tzu Kung is not only smart but also revealing the truth. Confucius is a master of the etiquettes (actually one of the inventors). His behavior was reasonable enough for establishing a trustworthy impression among the governors, so they were willing to tell him the truth. That’s what Tzu Kung called “a seeking way different from others”. Actually he meant that a benevolent personal character helps in establishments of trustworthy relationship even for the politicians who are rarely honest, and that will lead to a better idea exchange and a smarter conduct of political practice.

慎终追远章

Original text

曾子曰：“慎终追远，民德归厚矣。”

Translation

Tseng Tzu said, "Holding last honors gravely and showing retrospection for remote ancestors, the mores will gradually turn over to an unsophisticated situation."

Annotation from research

The ultimate concern is a unique part of the social philosophy. The Confucians are not strict atheists. But the direct reason for Confucian funerals and sacrificial rites is not to have contact with God, but to have contact with the ones who passed away. Chinese tradition does not contain a belief of resurrection, not as the Christians. The offspring, in Chinese’s opinion, is an extension of the parents, and the death is viewed as natural hand-over between generations. So the resurrection becomes unnecessary. But on the other hand, the inheritance from the parents and even remote ancestors is turned to a duty instead of an option for Chinese. The relationship among the livings is sophisticated, hard to deal with. But the contact between the livings and the ancestor passed away is always simple and full of care. The Confucians believe if everyone holds a serious recognition of the responsibilities entrusted from the ancestors, the whole society will finally go in peace since one does not only stand for himself or herself but also carrying something from their ancestors. And if the similar sympathy is applied to the strangers, more forgiveness will be given, and the society itself will result in a situation with more benevolence.

君子不重则不威章

Original text

子曰：“君子不重则不威。学则不固。主忠信。无友不如己者。过则勿惮改。”

Translation

Confucius said, "A noble will lose stateliness and honor if he or she fails to keep sober. Study saves one out from ignorance. Loyalty and faith-keeping should be one’s dominant action principle. Never make friends with the ones who do not deserve you in all aspects. Don’t be afraid to rectify a mistake after making it."

Annotation from research

The Confucians do care about the social part much more than the technical part about one’s personal success. Becoming a noble is the ideal of all Confucians. However, this identity is not tenured. One must sustain his behavior lifetime to keep it. In Chinese there is an idiom “only when the cover of one’s coffin is shut can the final judgment of him or her be made.” Here Confucius pointed out the importance of bearing which a noble must maintain in the first sentence of this verse. In a Confucian view, only uneducated ones would set no constraint for his or her public behavior, and thus lose the opportunity to win a noble’s name. Also, just as in a Platonic world, the philosophers rule. In a Confucian world, the rulers are the noble. And not to lose honor from the people, one must keep good bearing and be sober so as to approach a long-term respect, which is a basic part of the Chinese politics. Even nowadays, the Chinese governors almost never even smile in public, let alone attend TV shows to expose their personal lives. That is a result of the Confucian education after all.

It is easy to understand why study saves one out from ignorance. And the necessity of loyalty and faithfulness is also a common sense. Last but not least, ability to correct mistakes timely can be accepted by the most, too. The only thing to remember is that self-motivation, loyalty, faithfulness and courage to admit and rectify the mistake are lifetime requirements for the noble. They are hard to carry out lifetime, aren’t they!

The only confusing sentence is about making friends. So, who can determine one is inferior to another? And did Confucius mean we should only make friend with the outstanding ones? If so, wouldn’t the outstanding ones deny our requests for the same reason? Nevertheless, the original idea of Confucius turned out to be encouraging everybody to make friends with others from whom you have something to learn, and thus advance. He pointed out that if one never learns from his friends, and only develops friendship which brings him or her no benevolent progress, that does him or her no good. Confucius did not agree that as Western saying goes, friend is thief of time, but he did not agree the time should be wasted either. As a matter of fact, everybody has some advantages worth learning from. Confucius was an advocator for studying from friends, rather than just making friends for fun.

贤贤易色章

Original text

子夏曰：“贤贤易色，事父母能竭其力，事君能致其身，与朋友交，言而有信，虽曰未学，吾必谓之学矣。”

Translation

Tsze-hsia said, "Having more appreciation on virtue than on appearance for one's spouse, laying oneself out for one's parents, serving devotedly for one's master, always keeping faith for one's friends, for such a person, even he or she is said not to have been formally educated, I must say he or she has completed the education already."

Annotation from research

The four cardinal relationships among Chinese: the husband-the wife, the parents-the children, the master-the lieges and relationship among friends, are repeatedly mentioned. Adding relationship among siblings, it is usually called five cardinal relationships among Chinese. Certainly, while not everybody has brothers and sisters, the former four relationships affect everybody, so they are considered more important.

The original and full meaning of the first clause should be as follows:

Change your mind from appreciating only for appearance, to appreciating for virtue as well.

Literally there isn’t a word about the couple relationship, but it can be easily deduced from the context. But the word change reminds us of the effect of the civilization: what leads to such change in mind? And, what differentiates human beings from the animal world? After all, appearance counts. But, the term virtue only makes sense among human beings. The more one is socialized, the more he or she will value virtue. That is what Confucian followers mean for education: to form an order to the extent of the whole society by means of socializing each individual and evaluation system is based on their virtue, their moralities, rather than their endowment such as appearance or intelligence, which is very different from the western evaluation systems.

Tsze-hsia became a disciple, a student of Confucius when Confucius was in his old years.

弟子入则孝章

Original text

子曰：“弟子入则孝，出则弟，谨而信，泛爱众，而亲仁。行有余力，则以学文。”

Translation

Confucius said, "You pupils should follow filial piety at home, and show respect to the elders outside. You should also put attention to your behavior, and be trustworthy. You should deliver your love to the people in an across-the-board way, and make intimate contact with the benevolent. Once you have carried the things mentioned above out, and still have spare energy, you may go on with study of booklore."

Annotation from research

The education philosophy explained by Confucius is also binded with a benevolent core. He didn't agree that everybody should become learned, especially, he emphasize the civilizing effect generated outside school. Don't forget that Confucius is a pioneer in school education, but his school is actually his living place, his home.

This verse is a direct demand on which disciplines "pupils" of Confucius should follow in their daily life. Confucius set series of criteria on how his disciples should deal with difference people: their parents, their elders, common people, and the benevolent ones. In Confucius' opinion, these disciplines is the education itself. We can easily deduce from the previous verses that these disciplines are also playing the core value of Confucius' philosophy of benevolence. According to Confucius' idea, these two things are really identical. It can be easily understood since one cannot become a good intellectual before he or she gains a good name. In modern terminology, Confucius discovered the importance of emotion quotient more than two thousand years ago, and consider it a premise of the formal school study, the book study, or the study for intelligence quotient. He wants his disciples to have a fundamental knowledge of the society, and become social, but only perform book study in spare time. The society, or more concrete, the knowledge of how to deal with the people in the society, is the purpose of Confucius' education, or it is the Confucius' education itself. Only intellectually educated, in Confucius' view, is but meaningless. How different it is between Confucius' and nowadays common ideas in the field of education!

道千乘之国章

Original text

子曰：“道千乘之国，敬事而信，节用而爱人，使民以时。”

Translation

Confucius said, "To govern a country that owns thousands chariots, one must put respectful and careful concentration on the government affair and keep good faith, retrench the expenses and love the people, employ escuage only in felicitous time."

Annotation from research

Confucius begins his political discussion in a very early verse. His political view generally originates from an agricultural social background, but it applies universally. In Confucius' times, the China mainland was governed by several seigneurs, and each of them ruled a demesne which was generally called a country. A country that owned thousands chariots had very strong military force. But even for such countries, Confucius didn't think they should rely on their power. On the contrary, he suggested that only benevolent policies should be counted by the governors.

Confucius particularized what is benevolent policies not in an abstract way. Instead, he gave out his guidance in most important three aspects that every governor should encounter daily: government affair (spiritual), economic consideration (material) and escuage (people-related). Confucius used polished words but expressed good information. He said that for spiritual affairs, which is governors' major, he should be respectful and careful. Respect comes from recognition of responsibilities which governors are always bore with but often underestimate. Only if a governor takes people, faith and responsibilities seriously enough, will he or she be fulfilled with respect and care when dealing with government affair, and thus the policies becomes benevolent. For economy and escuage, which is the duties the people have to take upon, Confucius did not simply suggest that the governors should reduce such taxes. He thought in a flexible way. Firstly, not only the people has economic duties for the governors. Such duties should be carried out in a two-way manner. The love towards people from the governors is the reward, and that counts for the core value of the benevolence as well. Secondly, the escuage should be arranged only in good time. The original meaning of Confucius is that such escuages should be arranged in the seasons that farmers have leisure times between the harvest and next sow, usually late fall and winter. That will not put farmers into exhausted situation. We can see from these suggestions that Confucius' political opinion is likely to take people as the foremost, and that is the application for his philosophy of benevolence in politics.