We all know that Confucius was revered as the "Master of All Ages" and the "Most Holy Teacher", but Confucius did not recognize himself as a saint.
In Confucius's interpersonal circle, who can get Confucius's approval?
In addition to Confucius and his students, there are 125 characters mentioned in the Analects.
Among these people were saints who were called "majestic", and there were also villains who were scolded as "old and immortal"; those who strongly praised Confucius and sang about Confucius; some praised Confucius, and some followed him blindly.
However, if divided by time, there are two main categories:
The first category is the ancients before Confucius, a total of 42 people. According to the classification of the "Book of Han and the Table of Ancient and Modern People", people are divided into 9 grades, and this division is also the theoretical basis of the Zhongzheng system in the nine products of later generations.
Of these 42 people, 25 are superior, accounting for about 60%; there are only 4 inferior people, not even 10% of them. So, most of them are good people. Why do good people come in droves?
Because Confucius was a retroist, thick and thin, how the ancients looked good in his eyes.
Among these ancients, the highest realm was the saint. By Confucius's standards, he himself was not a saint, and his students were not saints.
The saints recognized by Confucius are basically dead people, so they can only be selected among these 42 people. Who are they? Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu are also the ancient Saint Kings.
The second-class are the xianchens, including the ancient period, such as the originator of justice, Gao Tao, the originator of the cook, Yi Yin, and so on; there are also the Spring and Autumn periods, such as Guan Zhong, who helped Qi Huan to dominate;
Another category is people who are super-graceful, such as Boyi and Shuqi who do not eat Zhou Su. Among the ancients, there were very few bad people, and the only people who were named were the big bad guy Shang Wang, Chang'e's husband Houyi, and the terrestrial boat.
The second category is the contemporaries of Confucius, a total of 77 people, most of whom are bad guys, either dimwits or thieves, and there are not many good people.
According to the classification just now, there is not a single upper-class person, there are 4 upper-middle-class people, 12 upper-class people, and 25 inferior people.
In short, confucius mentioned only 1/4 of these contemporaries, only 1/4 of the good people, most of whom he criticized. Just think, if Confucius had a circle of friends, these people are estimated to be blocked by him and are about to be blocked, right?
The people mentioned in the Analects are classified according to their identity: one is the monarchs of various countries, such as Lu Zhaogong, Qi Jinggong, Wei Linggong, etc., who were all in power in the era of Confucius.
However, none of them were able to reuse Confucius, and Confucius's evaluation of them was also average, such as his blunt statement that Wei Linggong had no way.
The second category is the secretaries of state of various countries. For example, the state of Qi xiang yanzi, the lu state of power minister Ji Pingzi, Zheng Guoxian's subject son, the chu state of good dragon Ye Gong, etc., Confucius praised them less, bad reviews.
Another category is the originator of the hermit, such as the Lotus Zhangren, the Chu Crazy Public Opinion, etc., they are innocent and virtuous, but they like to ridicule Confucius sarcastically, thinking that he is running around in a chaotic world, which is meaningless.
Confucius still had more respect and admiration for them, but if he really let go of his ideals and "float on the sea", then Confucius was not very willing.
However, looking back on the whole, the ecology of Confucius's circle of friends is not very good, and he thinks that those who deserve praise are all dead ancients, living, either he wants to blacken him or people will block him.
What are the interesting topics between these people and Confucius?
The saint's love bean: the inner can cultivate the body, the outer can be peaceful
In modern society, entertainment is dead, and fans can do whatever it takes to love beans. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius was still excited and full of love.
Who are his love beans? It is the aforementioned Yao Shun Yu Tang Wenwu, a group of virtuous and accomplished saints, who were able to cultivate themselves to reassure the people, and were the holy kings of ancient times.
In terms of morality, Confucius said, "Majestic, Shunyu has the world, but not with Yan", which means that Shun and Yu are very modest and can zen the world to others.
Confucius also said that Yu this person is very frugal, poor eating, poor clothing, poor living, single-mindedly devoted to serving the people, Confucius has no two words for Yu, just one word: service!
However, the ancient Saint Kings are too old, and they are all legends. In the near future, Confucius's most admired era was the Western Zhou, the biggest love bean was the Zhou Gong, and the ultimate ideal was to restore the Zhou Li.
In his later years, he once said with a worried face: "I will no longer dream of seeing Zhou Gong for a long time!"
The meaning of this statement is not the opposite of speculation: Confucius was all Zhou Gong in his dreams when he was young! I would like to ask those die-hard fans who love beans, can you all often dream of love beans?
Confucius fans, of course, not because of their appearance, figure or anything, mainly because of their noble character, especially the Zen Rang known as the ancient virtue, like Yao Shunyu is to Zen to win the world, but later Yu passed the world to his son and began the "family world".
On the occasion of the Shang Zhou, some people suddenly paid attention to the morality that no one had spoken about in eight lifetimes. Confucius especially admired them, and once exclaimed: Tabor, which can be said to be the most virtuous. Three, the world gives way, and the people have nothing to gain.
Who is Tabor? The eldest son of King Tai of Zhou.
It is said that this King of Zhou tai has a son, but "the old man of the world loves the little one", and the world loves his son, and so does the king of Zhou. He not only likes the younger son, but also the younger son, who?
King Wen JiChang. Therefore, King Tai of Zhou wanted to pass the throne to the third elder, but he did not say it explicitly. After the eldest and second brother understood the meaning of the father, they did not say anything and ran! In one breath, he ran to Wudi, which is now the area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Of course, now here is rich in the world, "there is heaven on the top, there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below", but at the time of Tabor, Wu Di Na called a barbarian and ran there, which was basically equivalent to exileing himself to Siberia.
Before the exile was over, he also engaged in self-harm and tattoos. The good villains are also the second generation of kings, so why should they masochistic themselves to this point? The main purpose is to show that you have no idea about the throne and prove that you are overwhelmed.
In the spring and autumn, this story was passed down as a beautiful talk. Confucius believed that Jean Xian was a high moral character that only the ancients had.
Tabor's virtue was so high that the people didn't know how to praise him. In fact, this is probably Confucius's own unilateral interpretation, maybe in the eyes of the common people, Tabor is to avoid the scourge of killing himself and go away, perhaps, some people will scold their brothers for putting the throne on the throne, stupid!
If you only look at the reasons why Confucius fans love beans in the front, it will make people mistakenly think that he only looks at morality and word of mouth when he chases idols. In fact, if the ancient sages did not have the ability, especially the achievements of the hands, Confucius would not fan them.
In Confucius's view, if anyone can give generous favors to the common people and issue a red envelope or something during the New Year's Festival, it is very remarkable. If you can save the people from water and fire, and liberate the people from hanging upside down, you are simply a saint.
This point of view is fully reflected in his evaluation of Guan Zhong.
At the beginning, Confucius had a bad evaluation of Guan Zhong, saying: Guan Zhong's instrument is Small. He felt that lao guan was too extravagant, hedonistic, and unruly.
Someone asked: Is Guan Zhong a frugal person? Confucius did not say angrily that Guan Zhong had three mansions, eating more and occupying more, and the people who served him were seriously overstaffed, can this be considered frugal?
Some people also asked: Guan Zhongzhili? Confucius was even more angry, saying: There is a shadow wall in the palace of the monarch, and Guan Zhong actually set up a shadow wall in his home; the monarch has a bar for entertaining foreign guests, and Guan Zhong has actually built a bar, he wants to know the etiquette, the dog knows the etiquette.
You see, it's all bad reviews.
But later, Confucius's thinking underwent an important change, especially after seeing Guan Zhong's ability, he immediately turned black to powder.
ZiLu once asked him: Guan Zhong and Zhao Kuo assisted Gongzi Gui together, and as a result, Gongzi Gui was killed by Qi Huan Gong, and the people summoned Gong Huan to die and martyr the Lord, and Guan Zhong not only did not die, but also surrendered to Qi Huan Gong's account.
Confucius said that the princes of Qi Huan did not use force or kill people, which was the credit of Guan Zhong, who was fully worthy of the word "benevolence".
After that, Zigong asked the same question. Confucius said: Guan Zhong assisted Duke Huan, dominated the princes, and the people were receiving his favor until now.
If there is no Guan Zhong, we will be put on the left side and reduced to Yidi, where we can still talk quietly about the scriptures here.
It can be seen that Confucius hoped to benefit the people and benefit the people like Guan Zhong, but throughout his life, he was looking for employment opportunities in his perch, and he failed to achieve his ideals until his death.
No way, who let those kings have eyes that do not recognize gold and jade?
Edited | Liangshan
Typography | Liangshan