"By what fatality, shameful maybe for the Western peoples, is it necessary to go to the far Orient to find a wise man who is simple, unostentatious, free from imposture, who taught men to live happily six hundred years before our vulgar era, at a time when the whole of the North was ignorant of the usage of letters, and when the Greeks were barely beginning to distinguish themselves by their wisdom?
This wise man is Confucius, who being legislator never wanted to deceive men. What more beautiful rule of conduct has ever been given since him in the whole world?"
-- The entry Philosopher in the Philosophical Dictionary of Voltaire
The Wisdom of Confucius
by Confucius, Lin Yutang (Editor)
page 3
(apparently not the same as
the book of the same title edited by
Epiphanius Wilson)
"To put it briefly, Confucianism stood for a rationalized social order through the ethical approach, based on personal cultivation. It aimed at political order by laying the basis for it in a moral order, and it sought political harmony by trying to achieve the moral harmony in man himself (sic). Thus its most curious characteristic was the abolition of the distinction between politics and ethics (As my own impulse is similarly to efface this distinction, I find Lin's calling this "rather curious", well, rather curious.) .... It was also a positive point of view, with a keen sense of responsibility toward one's fellow man (sic) and the general social order... Fundamentally, it was a humanist attitude, brushing aside all futile metaphysics and mysticism, interested chiefly in the essential human relationships, and not in the world of spirits or in immortality."
Lin, page 6
"JEN, good will, involves willingness to interact and cooperate reciprocally for mutual benefit. ...
People who are unequal should not mistakenly treat each other as if they were equals. Confucius taught "discriminating love", i.e., good will toward others which taks into account the actual differences involved in their inner natures and also their social positions."
Bahm, page29
"JEN, in the Analects, expresses the Confucian ideal of cultivating human relations, developing human faculties, sublimating one's personality, and upholding human rights.... Thus it is defined as "perfect virtue", which transcends the barriers of race, creed, and time."
The Sacred Books of Confucius,
and other Confucian classics
edited and translated by Ch'u Chai and Winberg Chai
page 1
.
CHUNG
Bahm defines CHUNG as a species of "genuineness", being to one's own self true, and this not merely in the sense of "stating honestly one's thoughts of the moment", but fidelity to one's true inner nature.
I suppose we must ask Shakespeare to trot out Polonius here --
"To thine own self be true, ... thou canst not then be false to any man."
"Li is propriety. Yet it is much more than simply the socially proper ways of behaving. Confucius regarded it as the appropriate manner of overt behavior needed to express one's inner thoughts or intentions."
"To learn the customary forms of external behavior without understanding their inner significance is artificial, not natural."
Bahm, page 39, page 43
"Whence does LI arise?... I, Hsun Tzu say, "Man (sic) by birth has desires. When these desires are not satisfied, he cannot but pursue their satisfaction. When the pursuit is carried on without restraint or limit, there cannot but be contention. When there is contention, there is chaos.... The ancient kings were disgusted by this chaos, and instituted LI and YI for its delimitation, so that man's desires might be nourished and their pursuit be gratified."
The Sacred Books of Confucius, and other Confucian classics
edited and translated by Ch'u Chai and Winberg Chai
page 3
Thus William Butler Yeays, in "A Prayer for my Daughter"
"YI (I) symbolizes the best way of doing things.... The wise man (sic) neither deviates from the way inherent in his own inner nature nor causes others to stray from their own inner natures.... 'The intelligent man expresses his beneficence to other men by accepting each man's way as best for himself."
Bahm, page27
"The task of knowing YI, the way nature operates, is alloted to scientists today. Their function is to understand the laws of nature, or nature's way; and having done this, they present us with knowledge of how nature operates and of how, consequently, we should best conduct ourselves if we would utilize nature's providence in living out our own lives."
Bahm, page 54
.
CHIH
"CHIH is wisdom. Wisdom involves
- Understanding YI, i.e., that acting naturally is the best way of doing things
- Having JEN
- Knowing and conscientiously practicing LI
- Habitually embodying in one's attitude and actions a complete willingness to act in accordance with YI, JEN, and LI
Bahm, page 47
"The work of anthropologist Mary Douglas hints that religious rituals may be practice for the routines which pin together a society. [51] Rituals inculcate obedience to authority, and act as calisthenics for the sort of simultaneous, coordinated activities —- complete with selfless sacrifice -- which make massive social structures tick. Confucius would have agreed."
[51] Mary Douglas. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982.
CONFUCIUS, "Doctrine of the Mean", 12
quoted here
And, I might respectfully add,
vice-versa