Yu Qiuyu: Lao Tzu and Confucius

Lao Tzu and Confucius

Text/Yu Qiuyu

At the site of Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan, I kept looking east, thinking of a large number of walkers on an ancient road, coming from east to west.

It was a great migration in the capital of the Shang Dynasty 3,300 years ago, led by King Pan Geng.

Their place of departure was today's Qufu, Shandong, which was called Xiang at that time. Their destination was Yin, today's Anyang, Henan.

This great migration brought about the golden age of the Shang Dynasty and greatly enhanced the early vitality of the Chinese nation. The great charm we see in oracle bones, tombs of women, and bronzes is the result of this great migration.

However, at that time, many nobles in the Shang Dynasty did not approve of moving the capital, and instigated the people to rise up against it, and the young Pangeng encountered great resistance.

We can still read several of his speeches on this matter in the difficult Shang Shu today. I don't know if these speeches have been worked on by later generations, but I think that in general, it should be the voice of this real "national leader".

It sounds like Pan Geng's expression during his speech is majestic and emotional.

I also briefly excerpt a few sentences from one of his speeches recorded in the Shang Shu Pan Geng (Middle):

Now I intend to lead you to migration to settle the kingdom. You don't understand my hard work, and you still want to shake me, which is really asking for trouble. It's like sitting on a boat but not wanting to cross the river, you can only do bad things and sink together. You are so reluctant to cooperate, only for happiness, do not want disaster, how can there be a future? How do you survive?

Now I command you to unite in one heart, not to abuse yourself with rumors, and not to let others defile your body and mind. I pray that God will bless you and not hurt you. I will only help you.

What Pan Geng said at the end of this speech, the original text recorded in the Book of Shang is relatively simple -

Live forever! Imami will try to move with Ru and build a home forever.

Translated into the vernacular, it is probably:

Go, go live a good life! Now I intend to lead you to migrate and to establish your homeland there permanently.

Therefore, the team that moved the capital set off in a mighty way.

There are a lot of single-wheeled, two-wheeled ox carts that load and also carry people.

Before the Shang dynasty was established, the Shang clan had already tamed cattle. Wang Hai, who was examined by Mr. Wang Guowei as one of the "ancestors" of the Shang clan, used to drive ox carts around shangqiu today to trade with the Youyi tribe, or directly used cattle as trade products. This is China's earliest impression of "business". Therefore, the merchants drove cattle and were already familiar with it when they migrated to Pangeng.

As for riding horses, they had been learned as early as the "Xiangshi" period several generations before Wang Hai. But it was less common and mostly the exclusive property of the nobility.

In the migration procession, there were more slaves carrying heavy loads, huddled around the ox carts and horses, waddling along.

West, west. Get rid of the nightmare of the Ninth Age's decline, pull out the nest of the nobles' private doors, and walk to the place where the sun sets.

The westerly wind is getting tighter, the clothes are fluttering, and in the distance, there is a new starting point.

Halfway down the road, they crossed the Yellow River.

It is now unclear how they crossed the Yellow River. Is it a raft or a boat made of planks? How much time did you spend? How many people were killed or injured while crossing the river? However, as the mother river, the Yellow River knows that it is this collective crossing of the river that can be sung and wept, which fundamentally changes the quality of this land and benefits the hundred generations.

Crossing the Yellow River and walking northwest, between the vast green fields and the water, there is a place name that was still very quiet at the time but will eventually suppress the entire history of China - Yin.

The Shang Dynasty, which had become clean and neat as a result of walking, naturally developed.

Change of dynasty

More than two hundred years later, the Shang Dynasty naturally declined again and was replaced by the Zhou Dynasty.

There was a member of the Shang royal family named Weizi, who conformed to this historical change and did not perish with the Shang Dynasty, he was the distant ancestor of Confucius. As a result, Confucius repeatedly said that he was "Yin Ren ye".

Probably in the first five generations of Confucius, the Kong family took refuge in Qufu, Shandong.

When Confucius was born, the old thing of moving from Pan Geng to Yin was about seven or eight hundred years old. This one back and forth, long enough, and classic enough.

That dynasty that moved west, together with its successors, created a splendid Shang and Zhou civilization, and the Luguo region where Confucius lived was also deeply nourished. Strictly speaking, at that time, Luguo had become the most cultural center with the strongest atmosphere of liturgy, which is why Confucius could become Confucius here.

In a cultural sense, Qufu, this starting point has become the point of return. This one back and forth, it is also long enough, and classic enough.

Confucius knew that he had become the main defender of the ritual system of the Zhou Dynasty, but the historical hub of the Zhou Dynasty had always been to the west of his hometown, and he had repeatedly looked west fondly since he was young. At the age of thirty-four, he finally set out for the West and went to Luoyi (present-day Luoyang), the seat of Zhou Tianzi, who was still nominally the co-lord of the world, to "pay his respects."

He has spent the year of "standing" that he has demarcated, established his own concept of life and the direction of behavior, and has also achieved a great reputation in society, so his westward journey is a bit fancy. Lu Zhaogong, the monarch of the State of Lu, provided him with carriages and horses and servants, accompanied by people. So, along the mighty Yellow River, all the way to the west.

From Qufu, Shandong to Luoyang, Henan, is not close under today's traffic conditions, but in Confucius's time, it was a long road.

Confucius thought about it the most along the way, and it was the elder scholar Lao Tzu in Luoyang City.

Traveling thousands of miles, often just for one person. The person to be visited this time is very knowledgeable, familiar with Zhou Li, and is the director of the National Library of the Zhou Dynasty. Of course, it can also be said that he is the director of the archives, or he can also be said to be the administrator, and his identity is recorded in the history books as "the history of the Zhou Shou Collection". The "history" mentioned here is also the "official".

Lao Tzu was such a mysterious person that even Sima Qian was confused when he wrote about him, and as a result, there has always been much controversy in the academic circles about whether he was bigger or smaller than Confucius, and whether Confucius had asked him about etiquette. My judgment is very clear, Lao Tzu is older than Confucius, and Confucius is very likely to have asked him for courtesy. The academic process for making such a judgment is complex and inconvenient to deduce in detail in an essay.

I remember that last year, when I was lecturing on Chinese cultural history in the auditorium of the Central Bank of Houston, a Chinese historian handed me a note saying that he saw that there were sources to prove that Lao Tzu was more than a hundred years later than Confucius, and asked me to help him explain a little. I said, you must have seen some history books treat Lao Tzu and Tai Shi Dan as the same person. Lao Tzu once left Hangu Pass in the west, and Tai Shi Dan also went west out of HanGu Pass to find Qin Xiangong, and Tai Shi Dan left the pass more than a hundred years after The death of Confucius, and things were so confused. In addition, some scholars have concluded that the book was revised after Confucius, based on certain language habits in Lao Tzu. My point is that more credible sources prove that confusing Lao Tzu with Tai Shi Dan was a matter in the early years of the Han Dynasty, and according to Lao Tzu's idea of birth, how could he possibly go out of the customs and defect to Qin Xiangong? As for the language habits in the book, it is related to the continuous play and supplementation of the disciples of the later schools, which was the case in many ancient books of the pre-Qin Dynasty.

I believe that Confucius most likely asked Lao Tzu about the salute, not only because there are ancient books such as the Book of Rites, Zhuangzi, Confucius's Sayings, and Lü's Spring and Autumn, but also out of a psychological analysis: the two schools of Confucianism and Taoism are quite confrontational, and Confucianism is so strong that it does not want to deny that Confucius once asked Laozi a salute, and there is only one reason, that is, it is difficult to deny.

The next question is, what did Confucius ask Lao Tzu, and how did Lao Tzu answer?

There are many theories that should not be easily accepted. In fact, various claims are speculating on the greatest possibility.

I find it interesting to say two things. One theory is that Confucius asked Lao Tzu about Zhou Li, and Lao Tzu said that everything in the world is changing, and we should no longer stick to Zhou Li. Another theory is that Lao Tzu enlightened Confucius as an elder, and a gentleman should hide deeply and avoid pride and greed.

If there is a second way of saying it, it is not polite. But when I wanted to come, it was normal. At that time, Confucius was only in his thirties, and his reputation was mainly in his hometown of Luguo, and Laozi, who was far away in Luoyang, did not know much about him. Seeing that he was visiting with chariots and horses, and hearing that lu Zhaogong had provided him, it was entirely possible that Lao Tzu asked him to avoid display, pride, and greed.

According to Lao Tzu's idea, the Zhou Dynasty was not saved, and there was no need to save it. Everything should go with the flow, that is the world's road. If we are too eager to govern the country and the world, we will definitely mislead the country and chaos the world. Therefore, the best place to go is to travel a long distance and disappear into the wilderness that no one knows.

Confucius certainly disapproved. He must be responsible for the lives of the world, and he must rebuild a state of order, integrity and forgiveness with the benevolence of a gentleman. His mission was to educate his disciples and then take them on a long journey to lobby those in power in various countries.

They are very noble, but they must not be able to talk about each other, because the basic ideas are too different. But with Lao Tzu's detachment and Confucius's respect, they would not be unpleasant.

Lu Xun later conceived in his novel "Out of Customs" that they were talking stiffly, and the responsibility lay with Confucius, which was due to a certain prejudice of the "May Fourth" generation towards Confucius, and of course, out of the humor and ridicule of the novelist.

Seriously speaking, this is the meeting of two great sages who truly stand on the peak of the thinking of all mankind, and this is the meeting of two spiritual originals of the Chinese nation. More than 2,500 years ago, on this day in Luoyang, there should have been a phoenix and a long song. Whether it was sunny or cloudy that day, whether it was wind or rain, it was expensive.

They said goodbye.

It is difficult for a rare genius to meet another rare genius, who always encounters followers, admirers, jealouss, and slanderers. These people, no matter how enthusiastic or vicious, cannot control their own thoughts. Only when you really encounter an interlocutor of the same level, preferably an opponent, will you have a demonic spiritual hardening. The result of hardening is likely to change yourself, but it is more likely to strengthen yourself. This is not stubbornness, but the attainment of a new realization by obtaining the highest level of disproof. It's like the long sky and the autumn water are suddenly reflected, the long sky understands that it is the long sky, and the autumn water also understands that it is the autumn water.

Here today, Lao Tzu understands more that he is Lao Tzu, and Confucius understands that he is Confucius even more.

They will be more explicit in going the opposite way. Nothing is the same, only two things are the same: first, they are all gentlemen of the hundred generations; second, they will all travel a long way.

They all have to turn their great doctrines into long footprints.

There is no greatness in the world

Lao Tzu denied that he had great doctrines, and even disapproved of the existence of great doctrines in the world.

He felt that the greatest doctrine was nature. What is nature? It's unnatural to make it clear. So he said, "The Word is the Way, the Extraordinary Way; the Name Is the Name, the Very Name."

Originally, he was not even willing to write these few words. For when one writes, one must frame and define the Tao, and the Tao cannot be framed and qualified; when one writes, it must enter the category for the sake of a certain name, and if it is not classified, it will not become its name, but once it is classified, it will no longer be itself. So, if you don't touch the Tao at all, if you don't touch the name, what else can you write?

Discard the pen. Expel self-righteous rhetoric and concepts.

The age was not small, and he felt that the long-awaited day had arrived.

He has lived to this day without leaving a short article or a single teaching in the world. Now, you can go to the desert smoke outside the Guanwai and go into seclusion to grow old.

He felt that this was the natural state of life, with no sorrow to speak of, and no joy to speak of. Returning to the way of nature is the best end, and it ends as if there is no end.

In his view, man is like water, flowing softly and quietly to the humble place, perhaps moisturizing something, irrigating something, but there is no trace. Finally it leaked, evaporated, vaporized, and became a cloud, or even a cloud, which is the way of nature. In this way, people should leak life into the desert and evaporate into the wilderness, so that no one can invade, "because they are not arrogant in the end, so they can become great."

"Great" is, in Lao Tzu's view, "Tao."

Now he was about to set off, riding a green bull, towards Hangu Pass.

To the west. Or the ancient road west wind, the west wind ancient road.

Luoyang is not close to Hangu Pass, and further west it is going to Tongguan, which is the boundary of today's Shaanxi Province. Lao Tzu rode on the back of the green bull and walked slowly. How long will it take? I don't know. Fortunately, he was in no hurry.

When we got to Hangu Pass, everyone had heard about the next thing. Guan Yinxi, the official who guarded the customs, was a lover of culture, and when he saw that the director of the National Library of China, who had never left a script in the world, wanted to leave the customs and live in seclusion, he made a request: Can I leave a work as a condition for approval to leave the customs?

This request is a bit excessive and embarrassing for Lao Tzu. Fortunately, Lao Tzu always encountered things without controversy, write it, and actually wrote five thousand words in one breath. That is the Tao Te Ching that we see now, which is Lao Tzu.

When he was done, he was out. Sima Qian said, "I don't know the end." ”

This ending is most like him. The true ending of the Tao Te Ching is in the wilderness desert and is not left to Guan Yinxi.

This passage in Lu Xun's "Exiting Customs" is well written:

Lao Tzu thanked him again and again, put away his pockets, and walked down the city tower with everyone, and when he reached the pass, he also had to lead the green bull to walk; Guan Yinxi tried his best to persuade him to get on the cow, and after giving up some concessions, he finally rode up. After saying goodbye, he turned the bull's head and walked slowly towards the main road of Junsaka.

It didn't take long for the cow to let go. Everyone watched at the pass, walked two or three miles away, and could also identify white hair, yellow robes, green cows, and white pockets, and then the dust gradually rose, covering people and cattle, all turning gray, and after a while, only yellow dust rolled and nothing could be seen.

In Lao Tzu's white pocket, he was rewarded for writing and explaining the Tao Te Ching at the pass—fifteen rao, which was again Lu Xun's novel technique. I like Lu Xun's prose depiction of the scene after Lao Tzu left the customs, especially the color conversion of white, yellow and blue all into gray and then into yellow dust. Moreover, it is also written that after Guan Yinxi returned to Guanshang, "a gust of wind rose outside the window, blowing yellow dust and covering it for half a day." What will happen to Lao Tzu is very worrying.

In any case, this is the back of China's first generation of sages.

How Guan Yinxi handled the five thousand Chinese characters, we don't know, only that they were left behind. More than 2,500 years later, according to UNESCO, the first is the Bible and the second is Lao Tzu, which has been widely disseminated in foreign languages for thousands of years. The New York Times announced that the top ten most influential writers in the past and the present of mankind, Lao Tzu ranked first. Germany, which has the highest philosophical attainment in the world, according to surveys, almost every volume of Lao Tzu.

14 years of dedication

We don't know when Lao Tzu left the customs after writing five thousand Chinese characters, but we only know that Confucius also began a long journey twenty years after bidding farewell to Lao Tzu.

In fact, in the past twenty years, Confucius has also been walking, educating, investigating, lobbying, and becoming an official, and he has also been to the State of Qi, northeast of Mount Tai, but he has not gone too far. At the age of fifty-five, he finally left his hometown of Luguo and began to travel around the world with his students.

At that time, the so-called "nations" were all local princely states, although they were not the same as the concept of state after the Qin and Han Empires, but they were also independent political and military entities. No one can control anyone but conquest or alliance.

Confucius's journey this time was a bit hurried and a little sad. He was bent on doing an experiment in the lu state to implement benevolent government, and he had also held some power, but in the end he could not resist the long-standing political tradition of "using the crowd to bully each other and violence with soldiers", and he was abandoned by the nobles of the lu country.

He had also had hopes for the neighboring State of Qi before, but the State of Qi had another vast and open political concept, which was not in line with his liturgical thinking. For example, the small outstanding prime minister Yan Bao, although he also talked about "etiquette", felt that Confucius's "etiquette" was too cumbersome and retrogressive. What's more, Confucius also offended the State of Qi for the diplomatic interests of the State of Lu. Therefore, there was no other choice, he still went west along the Yellow River to defend the country.

To the west, always to the west, is still the west wind of the ancient road, the west wind of the ancient road.

Twenty years ago, when I went to Luoyi to greet Lao Tzu, I also went west, taking the south road at that time, and this time taking the north road. Lao Tzu had gone further west to the West, and Confucius would never have gone as far as Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu's "Tao" stops at quicksand yellow dust; Confucius's "Tao" stops at gongyi red dust.

Yeah, red dust. It should be the ground of the guardian country in front of you, right? Confucius carefully looked at the scene on the side of the road and said happily, "There are many people here!" ”

The student next to him asked, "A place has enough population, what should we do to them next?" ”

Confucius replied with only two words: "Rich." ”

"What about when you get rich?" The student asked again.

Or two words: "Teach it." ”

Confucius used the simplest way of answering to show that he had long considered how to govern the country. Considering the sign of maturity is not hesitation, no instigation.

Students have long been accustomed to picking up the fine gold and jade that the teacher casually spits out along the way. In this way, the teachers and students and their party had questions and answers, and arrived at the capital of the WeiGuo, Diqiu, with confidence. This place was in the southwest of present-day Puyang, Henan.

Confucius lived in the home of his student Yan Zhuoju. Soon, wei linggong, the monarch of the Wei kingdom, received Confucius.

At the beginning, Wei Linggong inquired about Confucius's Feng Lu in the Lu Kingdom, and Confucius replied that there were 60,000 buckets of rice, and Wei Linggong immediately agreed to give it according to the same number. It sounds refreshing to send a high-ranking official without going to work, but what happens next is depressing. Confucius did not come to collect feng lu all the way, but to ask about politics, and the Weiguo court did not give him any opportunity in this regard. Later, because a celebrity of Weiguo was involved in a political event, Confucius once had contacts with him, so he was also suspected and monitored, and could only leave in a hurry.

This beginning is repeated over the next fourteen years of Confucius's travels around the world.

Most monarchs initially welcomed and respected Confucius and were willing to give him better material treatment, but they did not care about his political views at all, and they did not want him to participate in state affairs.

Confucius could only leave in disappointment again and again, always looking up to the sky and sighing every time he left, and always full of hope every time he arrived.

It was this hope that kept his trip from ending.

He was always on the road

In these fourteen years, he went from fifty-five to sixty-eight. This age, even in today's world where the general life expectancy has been greatly extended, is not suitable for wandering. And Confucius, such a scholar, is really shocking to spend his twilight years on an endless and long journey.

What is even more shocking is that in the past fourteen years, he has encountered cold eyes, mockery, shaking his head, threatening, pushing back, and bombarding, but he has not hesitated to stop at all.

He's not out of nowhere to stop. Everywhere is willing to welcome a man of fame and learning but no political opinion. Everywhere is willing to support him, to worship him, to worship him, as long as he is just an idol who does not speak much. But he would never want to.

Therefore, he is always on the road.

"On the road" was once a fashionable proposition in Western modernist literature in the twentieth century, and the Oriental Chinese world also appeared in the wandering trend of "don't ask me where I came from, my hometown is far away". Most of the young wanderers, whether in the West or the East, ended their wanderings after a few years of play and began to study hard. It is possible that they may have read Confucius, and once they read it, they could not help but laugh at themselves: it turned out that as early as 2,500 years ago, there was a giant human spiritual master who was still in self-exile until the age of sixty, and he was still wandering year after year, and he did not go down the road for fourteen years, and did not return to his hometown!

The most radical "modernism" appeared in the most distant antiquity, which may make some of today's researchers who will always only talk about historical chronology a little more relaxed?

Year after year on the road, there is always a kind of Hongmeng strength to support him. One day Confucius passed through Kuangdi (匡地, in present-day Changyuan, Henan), mistaking the Kuang people for a Yanghu who had harmed the local yanghu, and was detained for five full days. Just escaped, only a few tens of miles away, and then encountered a rebellion in Pudi, detained by the Pu people, fortunately the students fought and talked about peace, and barely escaped. At the most dangerous time, Confucius comforted the students and said:

King Wen is neither, nor is Wen in the same place? The Heavenly One will mourn Sven Ye, and the deceased shall not be allowed to be with Sven Ye. Heaven has not lost Sven also, Kuang ren what to do!

This means that when King Wen of Zhou is gone, won't the cause of civilization fall on us? If Providence hadn't wanted to keep Sven anymore, it wouldn't have been so committed to Sven in the first place. If Providence still wants to keep Sven, then what can these Kuang people do to me!

That time from Chen Guo to Cai Guo, he accidentally fell into the battlefield in the middle of the road, everyone had not eaten for nearly seven days, and Confucius still comforted the students with the sound of the piano.

Confucius looked at everyone and said, "We are not rhinos, nor are we tigers, so why do we always wander in the wilderness?" ”

Student Zilu said, "I am afraid that our benevolence is not enough, and people do not believe in us; perhaps our wisdom is not enough, and it is difficult for others to implement our ideas." ”

Confucius disapproved, saying, "If Rende can make people believe, why did Boyi and Shuqi starve to death?" If wisdom must work, why would Bigan be killed? ”

Student Zigong said: "Maybe the teacher's ideal is too high, so it can't be compatible everywhere." Can the teacher lower his ideal a little? ”

Confucius replied, "The best farmers don't necessarily have the best harvests, and the best craftsmen don't necessarily satisfy." Even if one can spread one's own doctrine in an orderly manner, one may not be able to be accepted by others. If you do not perfect your doctrine and only pursue the acceptance of the world, your ambitions will be too low. ”

Student Yan Hui said: "The teacher's ideal is high, and others are incompatible, which shows the true character of a gentleman." If our doctrine is imperfect, it is our shame; if our doctrine is perfected and still cannot be accepted by others, it is the shame of others. ”

Confucius was most satisfied with Yan Hui's answer. He laughed and said playfully: "You, the descendant of the Yan family, when you make money, I will manage the account for you!" ”

After laughing, I was still hungry. Later, thanks to Zigong sneaking out of the battlefield alone, he was rescued by Shen Zhuliang, the defender of the negative letter area (present-day Xinyang, Henan).

Action and rewards

Confucius on the road has always borne a contradiction: on the one hand, he feels that all gentlemen should let the world fully accept themselves; on the other hand, he feels that all gentlemen cannot be fully accepted by the world.

This contradiction, as clever as he is, cannot be resolved; the middle, like him, cannot be reconciled.

In my opinion, this is not the misfortune of a gentleman, but the great fortune of a gentleman, because the main founder of the concept of "gentleman" has imported the "two laws of rebellion" from the very beginning, making the gentleman immediately become profound. If you are a true gentleman, you must bear this contradiction. In today's parlance, one is extensive social responsibility, the other is the spiritual stubbornness of the self, which seems to be completely opposed and incompatible, but in the process of mutual resistance and collision, it constitutes a complementary vortex similar to Zhou Yi gossip. In complementarity, they are still mutually exclusive, although they are mutually exclusive, they are still complementary, so they are tightly bitten together, inseparable from each other, and always spinning.

This is the mastery of the great, and this is the door of the great master.

One-way motivations and results, straight-line actions and rewards, although they can also accomplish something, will never form a cloud of strange weather. There are always many literati in later generations who like to laugh happily at Confucius's embarrassment of lobbying everywhere and being rejected, and seeking officials everywhere without success, which is really the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain. It is easy for Confucius to be an official, to live in seclusion, to be famous, to be famous, and to be famous, but Confucius, who is trapped at one end, will not follow the example of a hundred generations. It must be a strong tension structure, and any tension structure must have support and checks and balances in the opposite direction.

In my opinion, even posterity's criticism of Confucius's conservatism and retrogression is superfluous, which is like criticizing Taishan, why the south slope bears so much sunlight, but also lets the north slope withstand so much wind and snow.

There is only one answer to be expected: "Because I am Tarzan." ”

The great Confucius knew himself to be great, so he never felt proud of the sun on the southern slope, nor was he ashamed of the wind and snow on the northern slope.

That time it was in the new Zheng Bar of Zhengguo, confucius and the students were separated, and the only child stood at the city gate with trepidation. Someone told the students who were still looking for him: "There was a tall old man standing outside the east gate breathlessly like a bereaved dog. The student found him and told him that he said happily: "Say I'm like a bereaved dog?" It's like! It's like! This pleasure of his is fascinating.

I agree with some scholars that Confucius's greatest attraction to us is a fascinating "mood of life"—supreme goodness, generosity, elegance, happiness, and health. He used his hard work to make the gentleman full of charm.

The way of the gentleman is difficult to implement in Chinese history, and the way of governing the country based on the way of the gentleman is even more bumpy, but from a distance, at the starting point of this way and that way, the tall true gentleman makes us feel warm and real forever.

The sun always has to sink in the west

However, the sun always has to sink in the west, and the westerly wind at dusk is a bit bleak.

Confucius was sixty-eight years old when he returned to his hometown, and when he returned home, he saw that his wife had died a year earlier. Confucius traveled far and wide since he was fifty-five years old and never saw his wife again. This man, who was constantly preaching the ethical ways of the world, stood trembling in front of his wife's grave. The old man doesn't know what to say, my wife!

At the age of seventy, his only son, Kong Carp, died again. The white-haired man sent the black-haired man, and the old man was terrified. He let Chinese really understand home, and his home was shattered at his own feet.

At this time, the old man's relatives were only students.

However, students, students, it is also difficult to pull. At the age of seventy-one, his favorite student, Yan, returned to the world. He finally burst into tears and cried out, "Heaven forbid!" Heaven forbid! (God for my life!) God wants my life! ）

At the age of seventy-two, Zilu, a student who had been loyal to him, also died. Zilu died heroically and tragically. Almost at the same time, another student he valued, Ran Geng, also died.

Confucius has been desperately busy in this constant news of death. More and more students came to study, and he was also sorting out the "Six Classics" (i.e., "Poetry", "Rites", "Music", "Yi", "Spring and Autumn") on a large scale. Especially in "Spring and Autumn", he consumes the most energy. This is a chronicle that has since determined an important mode of writing Chinese historiography for future generations. In this book, he expressed a series of social and historical concepts such as righteousness, great unification, mandate of heaven, and the honor of kings and kings, which profoundly shaped the spirit of thousand-year-old China.

One day, while compiling "Spring and Autumn", he heard that someone had hunted the Ren Beast Qilin in the west, and he was immediately thrilled, feeling that it seemed to contain a kind of "Destiny" message, and sighed: "My way is poor!" Immediately in the "Spring and Autumn" wrote down the four words "Xi Hunt Obtained Lin", quit writing, and no longer repaired "Spring and Autumn". His chronicle thus ended, and the later spring and autumn texts came from his disciples.

"Western Hunting", it's The West again! He looked up again and looked to the west. The Mandate of Heaven still came from there, from where Pan Geng had gone, from where Lao Tzu had disappeared. West Wind Trail, West Wind Trail.

Gradually, the tall body grew weaker and weaker day by day, and illness followed, and he knew that the limit was approaching.

He wanted to sing a few words that day. Trying it out, the voice was a little shaky, but still thick. He dragged his long tail note and sang three sentences:

Tarzan is decadent!

Beam wood its bad!

Philosophers wither!

Seven days after singing, this Tarzan really fell. Along with the sun on the south slope and the wind and snow on the north slope, it fell together.

Thousands of miles of ancient roads, the mighty west wind, instantly condensed under the pair of hemp shoes in front of his bed.