Confucius, as the founder of Confucianism, was regarded by China and even the international community as the "Master of All Ages", and the Analects, which recorded his words and deeds, has been a masterpiece since the Han Dynasty. Goethe was a famous German thinker, poet and writer of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was known as "Germany's greatest writer". Although they were born in different eras and have different cultural backgrounds, they all have a profound interpretation of human nature and benevolence in their works, and they are still constantly read and discussed by countless people.
On January 3rd, the seventh session of the series of forums entitled "The Futures Our Future" was held at the Aegean Shopping Center Light Space Xinhua Bookstore, with the theme of "Man and Benevolence Between The Classical and the Future: When Goethe Meets Confucius", fu Jie, distinguished professor of Ma Yifu College of Zhejiang University, who has in-depth research on Confucius and Chinese culture, and the klassik stiftung, which has conducted many international academic discussions on Goethe and German literature Weimar) Head of Research and Education Thorsten Valk, cultural scholar Shen Qilan served as the host of the event.
From left: Live Translator, Tosten Valk, Fu Jie, Shen Qilan.
Goethe was a witness and promoter of the changes of the times
Professor Valk introduced that Goethe's life experienced the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, and witnessed the rise and fall of the European church. At the time of Goethe's birth, Europe was still in the feudal period before the beginning of modernization, and when he died, Europe had become a modern land.
But Goethe was not just a bystander in a turning point; he himself was a member of the middle of this tide of change. For example, this wave of change pushed Goethe to revolutionize German literature on almost all subjects, and the entire language of German literature after Goethe was completely different from the era before Goethe. Goethe's new modern german literary language is still influencing many German writers today; at the same time, Goethe established a new view of art: he emphasized the originality of art, and put forward the two concepts of genius aesthetics and original aesthetics. "For Goethe, he believed that the true value of a work of art should be innovation and originality, rather than continuing to imitate and develop in established forms." Valk said.
Goethe's reputation in German literature is closely related to his international outlook. Goethe's literary creation was not only concerned with Europe, but also very intoxicated with world literature. For example, Goethe was most interested in Persian culture and Chinese culture, and the most prominent example is the publication of two poetry collections, the West-East Poetry Collection and the Four Seasons of Sino-German Morning and Evening Miscellaneous Verses. As early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, Goethe had called for cultural exchange on a global scale, he was a pioneer in this regard, and Goethe was the first writer to propose the idea of "post-state".
"When we talk about culture, we should cross our own borders and discuss culture from an international perspective. He believes that all countries and all cultures can benefit themselves through exchanges with other cultures, and only by being able to communicate and interact between different cultures can culture have the possibility of future development. Valk said.
Goethe was not only an observer of his time, but also a diagnostician. In his classic "Faust", it is mentioned that as the process of modernization becomes faster and faster, the frequency of the pulse of the times is also accelerating. In addition, modernization may also lead to a loss of cultural identity and a blurring of identity awareness. In the process of modernization, many historical memories are being forgotten, and these histories explain exactly where we come from. "So he saw both the beginning of modernization as a positive aspect of this society and some of the negative consequences that modernization might have on our lives."
In the process of social transformation into modernization, perhaps only change itself will never change. Goethe always had the will to change, and clinging to the invariance of history was against him. He believes that it is necessary to seek innovation and change on the basis of tradition and history, and to achieve a balance between tradition and the future. With such an idea, Goethe achieved a balance between the past and the future, as well as between innovation and tradition. This can also be seen in Goethe's concept of art that has evolved with the times.
Dialectical view of the modern educational significance of "gentleman is not instrumental"
Classical thought can only be renewed through continuous revision in the process of modern social practice. No matter how conclusive the proverbs were at that time, they also needed to be tested and tempered by the times. Fu Jie said that the saying "gentleman is not a tool" in the Analects has been partially unusable in real society.
"This 'no vessel' simply means not to turn you into a vessel, but I think it is irresponsible to one-sidedly propagate this idea now." Fu Jie believes that Confucius wanted to train his disciples to become an encyclopedic scholar at that time, but in modern society, people want to gain a foothold in society, first of all, they must have their own characteristics, that is, to cultivate a skill, not necessarily all of them are stunts, but in a certain position, "there may be no one to replace you, and your position is more stable."
Having your own skills and strengths may become experts in a certain aspect, but Fu Jie feels that this is also a drawback: "You have to know a lot of very small things, and the big price is that you can no longer know a lot of things that you should know as a person, which is actually a very sad thing." He quoted Mr. Qian Zhongshu's analogy. Someone went to the doctor with a broken eye, and the doctor said to the patient: You are the left eye, I am specialized in treating the right eye. "Of course, such a doctor could become the world's top expert. But life at this point, may be more boring, the right eye of all the things are clear, know nothing about the left eye, let alone know nothing about anything else. ”
In order to prevent over-delving into one field, leading to a loss of sensitivity to other professions. Some science and engineering colleges will hold humanistic reading competitions to publicize how many books to read in a year, and there are rewards for reading. Fu Jie believes that literature is to be carefully read word by word. "There must be a lot of wisdom in life in a goethe talk, and that is really the pure life and learning realm of an old man at the end of his life." This is by no means something that can be realized by the way of reading that swallows dates and looks at flowers.
Fu Jie has always stressed to his students that he must squeeze out time to read every day. Reading a 20-word poem, there are more than 300 poems a year, and the next year the level is a little higher, reading a poem of 28 words every day, after five or ten years of developing this habit, life will change dramatically. This practice Also Advocated by Goethe: No matter what kind of profession you are engaged in, you should read a good poem every day, you should read a good painting every day, and you should listen to a good tune every day.
Should a gentleman be "not a tool"? Goethe also talked about a similar topic in the educational novel "The Age of Study of William Meister", and he regarded "no instrument" as a manifestation of the emphasis on general education. Goethe speaks of two extremes in the middle of his work, the first of which is general education, that is, to understand all aspects of the world, and to exhaust everything. There is also another concept of education that specializes in vocational education in one aspect. Goethe contrasts the two, trying to express that the two are not the ultimate goal of education. "For it is impossible to achieve an education method that exhausts all knowledge, and at the same time the cultivation of man as a specialist in a certain profession is not the result we want, because it leads to the impoverishment of knowledge, the impoverishment of man, and the eventual alienation of man as a tool." Valk said the ultimate goal of education is to combine the two. This is also the "middle way" advocated by Confucius.
Many of the ideas of Goethe and Confucius coincide
Fu Jie said that a cultured Chinese should know a little about Confucius and read a little bit of the Analects. "The reason is simple, Chinese culture has not been broken, and Chinese culture has been the mainstream culture of Confucianism since the Han Dynasty, and the Ideas of Confucius embodied in the Analects have influenced all aspects of Chinese politics, society, literature, and life."
The English poet Westan Hugh Auden once said: "No book is inexplicably remembered."
Modern publishing a book, you can use commercial means to hype, find friends and relatives to advertise, a book can still show off for a while, but 100 years later there is no such social resources, the real decision whether these books have a market is the later generations. Although the Analects are only a few words and imperfect, they no longer need to endorse its longevity, and its contemporary influence can ensure that it can continue to be passed down. The same is true of Goethe's writings, where people all over the world receive goethe's wisdom.
Goethe was called "Confucius of Weimar" because his ideas and Confucius had many points of convergence. Wallk said that Goethe had read both the Latin and French versions of the Analects, and that Goethe not only read them, but also incorporated many Confucian doctrines and ideas into his own literary creations.
Valk gave an example. Goethe wrote a poem to Duke Auguste around 1780 about how to be a wise monarch. Goethe believed that as a monarch, you need to care for the people and create happiness for the people, and Goethe emphasized the responsibilities and obligations of the monarch in this poem, which is very similar to Confucius's idea of being a king. Moreover, Goethe himself was a politician who supported reform, and he also hoped to use such educational poetry to educate and encourage his monarch to govern with virtue, so as to promote the political reform of that region.
Goethe lived in an early period faced with the march of tradition toward modernization, and in the process he foresaw many challenges and problems in the future of society. In the process of thinking about coping strategies, he found that many of Confucius's ideas coincided with his.
Based on the contemporary, looking back at the classics of the past, and revisiting the words of the wise men of the two sages, we can give modern people a lot of ideological enlightenment. Goethe belonged to an era in which modernity was at its infancy; in confucius's time, it was a much older, or stage at the beginning of society. But their ideas are so similar and their recommendations are very similar. This may show that although many of these statements are debatable in the modern context, the universal principles in them can transcend the limitations of time and still have important practical significance.