Confucius

It is also the way in which every man should tread in imitation of that cosmic and supercosmic progression, confronting all activities to that great exemplar.

In ritual, says the intellect of Confucius, it is harmony with nature that is prized.

The ancient Jews likewise praised the law as being true.

It is true that if you have rules in your life, you will do better.

He held the position of custodian of the secret archives of the state of Chu.

Confucius went to Chu to consult Lao Tzu about certain ceremonials.

Lao Tzu told him, The bones of these sages concerning whom you inquire have long since decayed, only their teachings remain.

If a superior man is understood by his age, he rises to honor, but not being understood, his name is like a vagrant seed blown about by the wind.

These add no real value to your person.

That is my advice to you, and it is all I have to offer.

Confucius departed, and when he later described to his students his visit to Lao Tzu, he said, I understand about the habits of birds, how they can fly, how fish can swim, and animals run.

For the running we can make snares, for the swimming we can make nets, for the flying we can make arrows.

When someone who did everything right encounters the unthinkable, the books don't balance, and we start looking for any possible answer, even one that's not obvious yet.

When Confucius stood outside the window of a dying student, one of the most virtuous men he'd ever met, he didn't try to offer a reason.

He just took the man's hand and said, in effect, this is what heaven ordered, and as much as anyone might want to make sense of it, I can't tell you why.

Exploring the Analects, Episode 28, Passages 6.10 and 9.1, When Heaven Sends Orders.

Hey folks, this is Elliott Bernstein.

Thanks for joining me for Episode 28 of Exploring the Analects.

In this episode, we'll be covering passages 6.10 and 9.1 of the Analects, looking at what Confucius had in mind when talking about Tianming, Heaven's Orders.

We'll learn about how the concept differs from plain luck, and why it was one of the things he rarely talked about.

Really? And there are many, many chapters in the book.

Confucius say, book never closed till last chapter.

Is that what it says?

Yes.

Yeah, OK. Really? Yeah.

If we had three points for each win, what do you think it would be then? Confucius say...

13 times three? No,

no, no, no, no.

Things that are passed, it is needless to blame.

So spoke the great Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Confucius believed by many to be the wisest man that ever lived.

Since our story is about wisdom, we had to put Confucius in there someplace.

Wisdom, a quality so often associated with the mind, can also spring from the heart as well.

I tell you, her death wasn't an accident.

for your

prayer groups and everything, Jesus and others, we can say Jesus, Confucius, and others said you cannot go through life without helping anyone.

Come on.

to where you need to be.

Each of these reasons deserves kindness, because each was once a way of coping, and some of them still are.

Confucius had a disciple named Zixia who was appointed governor of a small town and who asked his master before leaving how he should go about governing it.

Confucius told him not to be in a hurry and not to chase small advantages, because whoever wants to go fast does not arrive.

And whoever looks at small gains never accomplishes great things.

The first half of that answer has become a proverb in Chinese, and most of us have learned its truth the hard way.

It's often called the Laozi because early Chinese books are usually named after their author.

The traditional story of its composition describes Laozi as an older contemporary of Confucius.

He worked in the royal archives of the Zhou Dynasty sometime in the 500s or 400s BCE, when he wrote the Tao Te Ching, rode west out of China, and vanished from history.

But most scholars today think the man is a legend, so why in this one case have historians become the mythicists? And if Laozi wasn't real, where did this character come from? And where did the Tao Te Ching come from? Our earliest full biography of Laozi comes from the records of the Grand Historian.

He passed into the West and was never seen or heard from again.

The text says none knew where he went to in the end.

Embedded in this biography is a scene where Confucius himself comes to visit Laozi.

He travels to where Laozi is working as an archivist, and he comes with a question about proper ritual, the subject of the entire life's work of Confucius.