Confucius

You know what I mean? Like, so Christianity popping up in the Western world, um, Hinduism popping up in one part of the world, Buddhism popping up in one part of the world.

It even brought up Confucianism, which I thought was pretty cool, but that's of, um, like all of Asia, they talk about Confucius, right? Um, But it is cool because if you've ever seen, what is the name of that movie? Oh, The Eternals.

Have you ever seen that movie called The Eternals Code? No.

Oh my God, it's a Marvel movie, but it's freaking awesome.

The fall of the old aristocratic order, with the Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism, and the creation of the imperial system that would shape China for over 2,000 years.

Andrew put together one of the first comrades of history to the Warring States period in his new book, To Rule All Under Heaven, a history of classical China from Confucius to the first emperor.

Andrew is a professor of history at Brooklyn College and the author of The Tao of the Military, Liu An's Art of War, and co-author of the Hui Nan Zi, A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China.

So, Andrew, thank you so much for coming on the show today to talk about the Warring States Period.

none of that was sort of making sense anymore.

A lot of people who in the past we would have predicted would be champions, covered in glory and honor, ended up being humiliated and destroyed.

By the time we get to the life of Confucius, there's a sort of general sense throughout this society that things just don't make sense anymore.

None of the traditions that we've inherited from the past really work the way that our ancestors told us to expect they would and um there's a there's a yeah

Acknowledge me.

The founding father of the after pill, the junior college sociologist, the Morpheus of the mating matrix, the chocolatey Confucius, the black Moses, the deliverer, also known as the man that ecclesiastically walks in the spirit of Elijah.

I'm the man with more nicknames than anyone in the game.

But in case you forget those names, just call me Papi Malo, Hentai CGA, Greg DiBiase, 50 Shades of Greg, the Lords of the Lings, Mr. Greg Foo Young himself, the James Bond of the game.

I'll give it to you.

So a widower is not a single mother.

She operating and functioning as a single mother, but she's actually her, her father, her husband died or her baby daddy died.

So in that case, a widower is not a single mother.

You know what I think, though? A rain of piss is bad, but not to the man who has just walked 10 miles through a poo stall.

You know, that's the kind of profound thing that Confucius or the Buddha or maybe...

Christopher Hitchens, one of our public intellectuals would say.

I think that the warmth, if you could get body warm piss falling from the sky, I think that would probably almost be enjoyable as well.

that? You know what? If I was brand new, maybe not.

In Confucius say, feet about shoulder width apart, ball slightly forward of center.

I go back because I hit the ground first.

Hands just slightly ahead of the ball and weight roughly 50-50.

You perceive its full power as little as a spoon perceives the taste of food.

Dude, that's like some Confucius stuff

right there.

Well, it's actually Buddhist.

Wow.

So.

So he gives them kind of a little bit more of, yeah, like you'd say a sensei or a Buddhist monk or like a Confucius wise man vibe.

Also, I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't want the great and powerful sensei to even think if you strike me down now, like that shouldn't even be a possibility.

Now, for more on Buddhism, you can check out episode six, but today we'll dive into the other two teachings.

First up, the man, the sage, the legend, Confucius.

From before Confucius was born, he was destined for greatness.

Around 551 BCE, a legendary creature called the Qilin appeared before his expectant mother, Yan Zhengzai, and upon his birth, two great dragons circled overhead.

But Confucius was a late bloomer.

He held a career in government while he thought about ways to make his society better, but he didn't share his ideas until he was in his 50s.

First, he wanted to improve the world through filial piety, or xia, respecting and caring for one's parents and ancestors.

Most of the leaders he shared his ideas with didn't listen.

It's more than a book, for sure.

I would say Lao Tzu, who's famous as the author of the Tao Te Ching, the book of the Tao, Confucius, who is probably the single, arguably the single most well-known around the world, exemplar of Chinese philosophy and kind of ancient wisdom traditions, even though Lao Tzu and Confucius are very different in their worldviews.

In some sense, we could say that the modern I Ching in some way is an amalgamation of Confucius's focus on duty and right conduct and Lao Tzu's emphasis on going with the flow and not trying to direct too much activity out in the world, but let the universe do what it will with us and trust the natural flow of things.

Both Confucius and Laozi were predated by the I Ching by at least 500 years.

So the two of the most profound and globally known exemplars of Chinese philosophy, I think basically wouldn't exist as we know them if it had not been for 500 plus years of the Book of Changes philosophy and practice and worldview being embedded within the Chinese culture For centuries before then.

And so the I Ching underlies the wisest, smartest, best known philosophers and practitioners that China has ever produced.