Bao Pengshan: How can we walk all over the world without being afraid? Confucius said 15 words

Confucius was a great educator, and according to legend, he had three thousand disciples and seventy-two sages. The educational concepts he put forward, such as teaching without class and teaching according to aptitude, have had a profound impact on future generations. Professor Bao Pengshan of Shanghai Open University used the many dialogues between Confucius and his student Fan Chi as an example to paint a vivid, stern and distinctive teacher image. He pointed out that in Confucius's concept, it is more important to cultivate a correct view of right and wrong and values than to learn specific knowledge, and only by "being faithful in words and deeds with respect" and "living in a respectful place, respecting deacons, and being loyal to others" can we "walk all over the world without fear." The following is his speech at the Oriental Pulpit Ideas LightIng Up the Future Lecture Series.

As we all know, we in China have a word called "learning." When we meet a scholar or professor who is doing research, we will say how well this person is. What is "learning"? A person's basic academic accomplishment and academic level, we call it "learning". The topic I share with you today revolves around the word "learning": reading is learning to ask.

What is the best way to study the Analects?

Everyone here may have read the Analects, or have a greater or lesser understanding of the Analects. The two words we see most in the Analects are "Zi Yue", and the beginning of the book is "Zi Yue: Learn and learn from time to time, but also say it." There are friends from afar, and they are very happy. Man does not know but is not ashamed, and he is not a gentleman. "Zi Yue" is "Master Yue", that is, the meaning of the Master's words. But Confucius did not speak there alone all day long, and all of Confucius's speech must have been asked by someone in front of him, and then there was a "zi yue". This "曰" is the meaning of the answer today. All the words spoken by Confucius in the Analects can be regarded as questions and answers between teachers and disciples, and there are only answers when there are questions.

A scholar of the Song Dynasty once said that the best way to read the Analects is to treat Confucius as our own teacher, the questions asked by the disciples as your own, and then the answers that Confucius gave to the disciples as the answers that Confucius gave us directly. He believes that learning in this way will be rewarding and can truly get the enlightenment of life. So, today we will find one person among all the disciples of Confucius, Fan Chi, to dissect his dialogue with the teacher. We know that Confucius had three thousand disciples, which is an approximation. Of the three thousand disciples, most of them are no longer available, and there are about 70 names preserved today. These more than 70 disciples were all people who were familiar with the six arts, and the six arts of "ritual, music, archery, imperial court, book, and number" were the basic knowledge framework of that era. A person who has six arts is equivalent to an encyclopedic character, which is already very remarkable, and Fan Chi is one of them.

Of course, Confucius also had some higher standards. For example, he himself delineated the "Ten Philosophies of Confucius" before his death, which was the ten most powerful of his students, such as Yan Hui and Zilu, but there was no Fan Chi among them. So, why should I cite fan chi's example? Because he is special among all the disciples of Confucius.

In fact, the relationship between Confucius and Fan Chi was very close, and he could even be said to be very attentive to Fan Chi's education. For example, one day Confucius took Fan Chi with him to see Meng Yizi. Meng Yizi was one of the three most powerful doctors in the State of Lu. The power of the State of Lu was not in the hands of the King of the State of Lu, but in the hands of the three most powerful doctors, namely the Jisun clan, the MengSun clan, and the Shusun clan. Because they were all descendants of the Duke of Lu Huan, we later generally called them "Three Huans", and these three families controlled the power of the State of Lu for more than 400 years until the fall of the State of Lu. Meng Yizi was a member of one of the large families, and he was also a student of Confucius. Meng Yizi's first question after worshipping the teacher was to ask filial piety. He asked Confucius, my father has died, please tell me the truth of filial piety. Confucius's answer is particularly interesting: there is no violation. These two words are half a sentence, not a complete sentence, and the translated meaning is "do not disobey." Don't go against what? Confucius did not say it explicitly.

Why did Confucius only answer half a sentence? You know, Confucius actually has a lot of requirements for students, learning students who have no initiative and do not work their own, he does not teach. He also had a verbal agreement with his students about what the teacher should do and what the student should do. Confucius once made an analogy that a table has four corners, "If you do not take a corner and do not use three corners to oppose, you will not return." "I only teach you one corner, the other three corners, which need to be deduced by the students themselves." If students can't deduce or are unwilling to deduce, then Confucius will not teach. Therefore, Confucius had a temper, persistence, and principle, and he would not accommodate students without principle. But it is precisely because of this that he can teach good students. Because he forces students to mobilize their subjective initiative and does not indulge students' laziness. This also explains why he only said the word "no violation" in this answer, because he wanted to make the students think for themselves.

After Confucius came out of Meng Yizi's house, Fan Chi drove for him. In the car, Confucius took the initiative to tell Fan Chi about this problem. Fan Chi immediately asked: What is also? Teacher, what do you mean by "no violation"? The Son said: "Birth, things are ceremonial; death, burial is ceremonial, sacrifice is ritual." "Many of us say that filial piety to parents means not disobeying them, is that right? No, filial piety to parents is talked about according to the rules. What if the parents do it wrong? Tell them and make corrections, and you cannot obey them without principle.

Duke Lu Ai once asked Confucius a question, saying that a monarch listens to whatever minister he says. A father listens to whatever his son does, is this not called filial piety? Confucius was very angry when he heard this, and he looked down on Lu Aigong very much. So, what is the highest thing for a person to obey? Confucius believed that it should be moral. So later Xunzi said a sentence: From the Tao not to the King, from righteousness to the Father. What man should obey most is the supreme truth, not a specific person. Neither can the monarch, nor can the father. Therefore, when Confucius said "no violation", he did not mean not disobeying the father, but not disobeying the etiquette.

I give this example to tell you that Confucius and his disciple Fan Chi were very close, and that he was very attentive to Fan Chi's education. He put forward the answer to Meng Yizi's question for Fan Chi to ask, and then told him the reasoning behind "no violation", which was equivalent to "opening a small stove" for Fan Chi.

Why did Confucius refuse to answer the question of "planting crops"?

We need to correct the stereotypical view that Confucius was a tireless teacher. In fact, Confucius was very personal and "very temperamental", some questions Confucius did not answer, and some students Confucius did not accept. Compared with Confucius, our teacher today is really tireless, assigning problems for you to do, changing them when they are done, adding a few questions after mistakes and then allowing you to consolidate, and then grading after doing them. In other words, Confucius will only explain one problem to you, and then let you learn from each other and solve more problems independently. If you do it wrong, he will criticize you harshly.

But Confucius was different only to Fan Chi, and he was tireless in teaching Fan Chi. Why do I say that? If we carefully read the Analects, we can see some special features of Confucius's treatment of Fan Chi.

Generally speaking, the Analects directly record that a student asks a certain question only once. For example, in the Analects, it is recorded that "Sima Niu asked Ren" once. Yan Hui was Confucius's favorite student, but the Analects recorded that "Yan Hui Asked Ren" only once. "Zigong Qingren" and "Zhonggong Qingren" are only once. However, Fan Chi was an exception, and the Analects recorded that he asked zhi twice and ren three times, and Confucius answered both. And there is also a phenomenon, Confucius's answer is different every time, he answers a different aspect of things, each time has a different meaning. Today we often ask teachers if there is a standard answer to a question. But in fact, if you look at the Analects, there is never a standard answer in the Analects. Different people ask Confucius the same question, the answer is different, even the same person asked three times, the answer is still different. This is great education, and in a way the education we lose today.

Fan Chi asked certain questions several times and three times, and Confucius actually answered them several times and three times, which shows that Confucius paid special attention to this student. Once, however, Confucius rejected Fan Chi's question. Fan Chi asked to learn the crops, and Zi Yue said, "I am not as good as the old farmer." "Fan Chi said, please tell me how to grow crops." Confucius said, I am not as good as a farmer. Everyone should know that since Fan Chi asked Confucius about planting crops, it shows that Confucius understood, and Confucius's family was very difficult when he was a teenager, and he could indeed plant crops. Fan Chi knew he understood before asking. But Confucius refused to answer, saying that I was inferior to the old farmer. Everyone should pay attention to the fact that this remark is hidden in the cotton, and there is already a great dissatisfaction in the tone. But Fan Chi's reaction was a little sluggish, the teacher's voice was not good, his face was not good, but he had not yet noticed. He then asked an even more silly question: Teacher, please tell me how to grow cabbage. Confucius said, I am not as good as the old garden. Fan Chi only reacted at this time, and the teacher was not happy and hurried away. Fan was late out, and the son said: "Little man, Fan Su also." ”

We often say today that teachers should not hurt a child's self-esteem. However, if you look closely at the Analects, you will find that Confucius specifically "hurt" the self-esteem of students. However, under such a long-term intensive "blow" as Confucius, his students' self-esteem was particularly solid. How to understand it? Everyone must remember that self-esteem, self-esteem, first of all, must be "respected" by themselves, not by others. You have to make others respect you, first of all, you have to do it yourself, it's as simple as that. I think Confucius criticized students so harshly and pointed out their problems, in a way, always reminding them to reflect on themselves - did I do a good enough job in some aspects? Good enough? Encourage them to be strong, work harder, and be motivated. Confucius is such a teacher with a special personality, in fact, we should learn to appreciate some teachers with personality, and do not demand them according to a stereotypical standard.

Confucius criticized Fan Chi for "little people", these three words are very severe, and according to Confucius's usual practice, he will definitely let Fan Chi hear. Why did Confucius answer the same question repeatedly and repeatedly by Fan Chi, but this time he was so harsh on Fan Chi that he not only did not answer, but also criticized him as a "villain"? Let's look at another conversation.

One day, Confucius and Fan Chi were walking under the dance platform. The Dancing Pavilion is a high platform for the king of the State of Lu to ask for rain, and this high platform is idle when the wind and rain are smooth, and the people can walk below. While walking, Fan Chi asked Confucius three more questions: "Dare to ask Chongde, cultivate, and discern." This means how to improve virtue, how to eliminate improper desires, how to discern doubts in life. After these three questions were asked, Confucius also gave him three words: Shanzha asked.

Why does Fan Chi ask that learning to learn and learn to be a garden is "a villain", while asking about reverence, cultivation, and discernment is "asking for goodness"? Some people once used this example to criticize Confucius, arguing that the reason why Confucius refused to answer Fan Chi's study and learning was because he discriminated against working people and manual labor. Is this really the case? In fact, Confucius once said to himself: I am a little and a lowly person, so I can despise many things. What is "contempt"? It is the manual labor done by the lower classes, and these labors Confucius will do. It can be said that Confucius never uttered a single word in his life that discriminated against working people and manual labor. So, what did Confucius's different attitude toward Fan Chi's question show? He is actually telling us about the lightness, importance, urgency, and urgency of education.

What is learning and learning to be a garden? Be professional. After refusing to answer the question of learning from the academy and learning as a garden, Confucius continued to preach: "If you are good at courtesy, the people will not dare to be disrespectful; if you are good at righteousness, the people will not dare to disobey; if you are good at faith, the people will not dare to be ruthless." If this is the case, then the people of the four directions will bear their sons and come to the end, and they will use the crops? He came up with three key words: letter of etiquette. What is it? It is value, that is, in Confucius's concept, knowledge is lower than value. For us to learn, learning knowledge is important and necessary, but there is another thing that is more important and necessary than it, that is, our value judgment, that is, learning how to judge right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness.

What exactly does "gentleman not instrument" mean

Today, all our universities are divided according to majors, and once we enter the university, we must choose a major. Through four years of undergraduate education, it is a basic training goal of the university to cultivate qualified professional and technical personnel. But a yale president, Richard Levine, once said that if Yale produces qualified professionals and technicians in four years of undergraduate education, then our college education will fail. Why is it that education has failed to cultivate qualified professional and technical personnel? In fact, in the Analects more than two thousand years ago, Confucius expressed exactly the same meaning: a gentleman is not a vessel. Ten years ago, when I was giving a lecture at Peking University, a law student at Peking University asked me, what is "gentleman is not a device"? I take the legal profession as an example, assuming that you have only mastered some of the basic common sense and basic knowledge of the legal profession through four years of study, you are an "instrument" and are unqualified. Conversely, conscience and judgment may be more important to the legal profession than knowledge.

The gentleman is different from the "instrument", the "instrument" only has functions, and the gentleman is a person, and man has his own subjectivity, his own virtue, conscience and judgment. For example, a kitchen knife is a "device". You take a kitchen knife to cut vegetables, does it have an opinion? It has no opinion. You take a kitchen knife out on the street to cut people, does it have an opinion? It also has no opinion, which is called "instrument". If you learn a lot of professional knowledge, professional skills, let you use this profession to do good things, you do, let you use this profession to do bad things, you also do, then you are the "instrument", just qualified professional and technical personnel, your education is essentially a failure.

I once gave training to cadres of government organs, and in the interactive session, someone asked me a question: There are two kinds of courses in universities, one is called professional courses and the other is called general studies courses. I said, I won't talk about the difference in their content, only about the difference in their function. Quite simply, professional education gives us the ability to do anything. General education, which we generally call humanistic education. What is the purpose of reading humanities books, reading Confucius, reading Socrates, and reading Lu Xun? I think reading these kinds of books is all about letting you know what you can't do. Professional education is what we can do, and general education is to let us know what we can't do. One knows what one cannot do, but also knows what one cannot do.

When I was in college, there was a popular saying called "Learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, and I am not afraid to go all over the world." Of course, in order to travel all over the world, mathematics, physics and chemistry must be learned, which is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition. If you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, you have the ability to do a lot of things, but it is not enough to stay at this level, you are not yet able to distinguish what can be done and what cannot be done. How can you go all over the world without fear? The Analects of more than two thousand years ago already tell us the answer. Once, "Zi Zhang asked for a line", Zi Zhang asked Confucius, how to walk all over the world without fear? Confucius's answer is different from our answer today, when he replied to Zi Zhang's six words: "Faithful in words and respectful in deeds." Then he went on to say, "Though it is a barbaric state, it is all right." Unfaithful in words, disrespectful in deeds, though in the state, what do you do? "If a person is faithful in his words and respectful in his deeds, he will be able to walk all over the world and go to the land of barbarians; if he is unfaithful in his words and deeds, then he will not be able to mix even in his own native land."

Remember the three times Fan Chi we mentioned earlier asked Ren? One of the three questions can also be seen as Fan Chi's question. Confucius replied to Fan Chi in nine words: "Respect for the dwelling place, respect for the deacons, and loyalty to people." "Usually keep respectful, do things when dedicated, serious, responsible, loyal when dealing with people, willing to help others, you can do these nine words can go all over the world." The six words that Confucius answered Zi Zhang and the nine words that answered Fan Chi are actually the core points I want to talk about today, and these fifteen words summarize the basic qualities that Confucius believed that a person must have.

The ultimate purpose of learning is not to master knowledge, but to "to the conscience"

There are two kinds of knowledge that are necessary in life, the first is necessary for the profession, and the second is necessary for life. Professional necessity, that is, we are engaged in a profession, we must master the professional skills required by this profession. What is a necessity for life? It is that all people must have a certain basic quality, and if you do not have this basic quality, you will not be able to move forward in this world.

Fan Chi asked Confucius so many questions, twice asked Zhi, three times asked Ren, Confucius patiently answered, why? Because knowledge and benevolence are necessary in life. Later, he asked, how to plant crops, how to plant cabbage, Confucius did not answer, why? Because Confucius believed that for Fan Chi, this was not necessary knowledge, and not knowing how to plant crops and cabbage would not fundamentally affect his life. Confucius once said to Zilu: "The woman knows it!" To know is to know, not to know is not to know, is to know. There are different interpretations of this sentence. In my opinion, Confucius is teaching students that the problems that must be clear in life should be clarified, and unnecessary knowledge can be left unlearned. Why? Life is short, and your life should be clear about what is necessary and what is not necessary.

Later, Zhuangzi also expressed a similar view: "My life also has an end, and knowledge has no end." With no end, there is no end, and it is gone! Those who have known, are gone! What he meant was that our lives are finite and that the knowledge of the world is infinite. The pursuit of infinite knowledge with a finite life is doomed to failure. Zhuangzi is also telling us that in learning knowledge, we must make distinctions and trade-offs. Coincidentally, the German thinker Nietzsche, at the beginning of his autobiography, asked the question: Why am I, Nietzsche, so clever? The answer he gave was that he never wasted energy on unnecessary things.

These great philosophers and thinkers all tell us the same truth: Don't blindly learn many things, first learn and refine the necessary things, and then learn the literature with spare energy. What is necessary? The first is the professional knowledge that you must master in the profession you are engaged in, and the other is the basic judgment of distinguishing between good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, that is, the most basic qualities that must be possessed by being born as a human being. You know, the problem of life is not mainly a matter of knowledge, but a problem of ethics; it is not about knowing things, but about judging value. Man cannot see all things, but he can be cautious and self-reliant.

Back to the theme I shared today: reading is learning to ask. From Fan Chi's experience of asking for knowledge twice and asking Ren three times, we can get some enlightenment--what kind of problems people should care about. Should we care about boring, trivial questions, or should we care about some fundamental issues in life? I want to tell you that people can be "ignorant", and this "ignorance" I mean does not mean not knowing anything, but that people should not just take the mastery of knowledge as the ultimate goal. As Confucius said, "Do I know what I know?" Ignorance also. Even the saints openly acknowledged their intellectual limitations. But we must remember that one cannot do without conscience, and the ultimate purpose of learning is not to acquire knowledge, but to "give conscience."

(Arranger: Zhou Danyi)

【Thinker Biography】

Bao Pengshan, Ph.D., scholar and writer, is a professor at Shanghai Open University and a member of the Academic Committee of the Confucius Foundation of China. He has published more than 30 works, including "Wind And Flow", "The Biography of Confucius", "Confucius Rulai", "The Mind of Chinese- Three Thousand Years of Reason and Emotion", "Eight Great Masters of the Pre-Qin Dynasty", "Introduction to the Analects", "New Water Margin", "Fatal Confession" and so on. (Photo of the author provided by me)

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Source: Author: Bao Pengshan