Virtue (德/dé) is very close to goodness (仁/rén) at the apex of Confucius’s hierarchy of values. Generally, though not always, it refers to the highest state that a ruler can aim for.
Continue reading Analects of Confucius Book 1: Confucius on virtue
Before you read a single word of the Analects, it is important to understand that the work comprises a collection of conversations and aphorisms rather than a manifesto. Each of its twenty books features multiple exchanges between multiple characters discussing multiple topics – much like a modern-day social media feed. There are no linear arguments based on carefully-marshaled facts that build up to a resounding conclusion. It is left to you, the reader, to pick through the various threads of the text and connect them to the others to build up your overall understanding of the teachings contained in it.
Continue reading Analects of Confucius Book 1: Overview
Goodness is such an ambiguous concept that even Confucius shied away from attaching an exact meaning to it. He found it much easier to describe the benefits that the cultivation of a strong internal sense of goodness can bring to people rather than defining its precise features. Continue reading Analects Book 4: on goodness
The ability to assess a given situation objectively and take the most appropriate action based on the facts of it is one of the key leadership qualities that Confucius highlights in Book 4 of the Analects. Continue reading Analects Book 4: on leadership
Book 4 of the Analects begins with an exploration of the meaning of goodness. Only people who practice it constantly in their daily lives without a desire for personal profit are able to enjoy true satisfaction and contentment. “Small-minded men” who only pursue it for personal gain will never be truly fulfilled and happy. Continue reading Analects Book 4: Overview
“If a man has no goodness, what can he have to do with the rites?” This is the rhetorical question that Confucius asks in Chapter III of Book 3 of the Analects. Continue reading Analects Book 3: on goodness
As with Book 2 and Book 3, Confucius dominates Book 4 of the Analects with the curious exceptions of Chapter XV and Chapter XXVI. The only plausible explanation for these two anomalies is that they were slipped in by an unscrupulous or careless editor. Continue reading Analects Book 4 presentation
Book 20 of the Analects is a strange mutant beast, consisting of just three totally unrelated chapters. It’s almost as if its editor hacked it together after a few drinks and then decided to head back to his local for a few more cups of wine when he got bored with it. Continue reading Loosely connected threads
子游曰：「吾友張也，為難能也，然而未仁。」
Ziyou said: “My friend Zizhang is a man of great ability, but he has not yet achieved goodness.”
曾子曰：「堂堂乎張也，難與并為仁矣。」
Zengzi said: “Zizhang is so full of himself that it is difficult to cultivate goodness by his side.”
I presume that it wasn’t an editorial accident that these two put-downs of Zizhang are paired together. Continue reading Zizhang gets a kicking
子夏曰：「雖小道，必有可觀者焉；致遠恐泥，是以君子不為也。」
Zixia said: “Although there’s a lot to see when you stroll along the byways, you risk getting get stuck in the mud if you have to travel far. That is why a leader should avoid them.”
子夏曰：「日知其所亡，月無忘其所能，可謂好學也已矣！」
Zixia said: “If you recognize day by day what you still need to learn and don’t forget month by month what you have already learned, you truly love learning!”
子夏曰：「博學而篤志，切問而近思，仁在其中矣。」
Zixia said: “Expand your learning and stick firmly to your purpose; question everything and reflect deeply: this is how you find goodness.”
子夏曰：「百工居肆，以成其事，君子學以致其道。」
Zixia said: “Artisans of all types live in their workshops to master their trade. A leader learns to master the Way.”
In contrast with the extroverted Zizhang, Zixia was one of the more conventional, some might say pedantic, disciples of Confucius. He had no time for fripperies and was relentlessly focused on the application of the teachings of his master by both himself and the students who joined his school. Continue reading Stay on the highway