Why did Confucius survive?

Why did Confucius not fall?

Confucius had too many shortcomings and limitations. It was easy to oppose him but difficult to defeat him.

Since he heard the Tao from a series of teachers and friends such as Laozi, Zichan, Shixiang, Tanzi, Chang Hong, etc., he has distanced himself from his teachers and friends. Because the teachers and friends are either traditional and conservative, or they are idle, or they are just playing out their fateful life scripts in the constraints of the situation. Confucius knew that he could not do anything, so he was ambitious and expressed it in modern language. Confucius made good use of the Chinese classics preserved by the state of Lu, the cultural center of the world at that time, and the most advanced communication tool, writing, to cultivate the world at that time. The largest talent team in the world, the Confucian sage, is ready to build the paradise of kingship in his heart, the Datong Society.

Although writing was not very effective in recording discourse and thinking at that time, the only "Spring and Autumn" written by the old man himself was called "Duanlan Chaobao" by later generations, but the advancement of Lu's writing has already It was well known to the emperor and other countries; thanks to the efforts of generations of descendants of Zhou Gong and historians, by the time of Confucius, the writing began to mutate. Confucius compiled ancient books; the collective wisdom gained historical development among Confucius disciples. Disciples and re-disciples worked together to record Confucius's words, which became a model for a time. Once the effective writing appeared, the poems, songs, and poems preserved by officials, ministers, blind people, historians, teachers, blind people, Mongolian people, etc., as well as new civilized thinking, questions and answers in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States era, began to precipitate and Accumulation began the spread of enlightenment over hundreds of years. Naturally, those unknown geniuses worked under the guise of Huangdi, King Wen, and Duke Zhou, and they could only become famous in the guise of Confucius. Until the Han Dynasty, Chinese classics such as the Nei Jing, the Book of Changes, and the Book of Rites, which were passed down orally or were originally created by individuals, mostly relied on the fame of Confucius to become popular.

Therefore, Confucius took advantage, but if this advantage really had to be given to someone, it would have to be him. He is a master, the greatest king in the past three generations who has penetrated the three talents of heaven, earth and man. He is called "King Su" by future generations.

The advent of effective text is a big deal. Words originally have the magical power of "rain from the sky, millet from the sky, ghosts cry at night". Memo symbols such as oracle bones and admonishment symbols such as bells, tripods, gold and stones are not enough to illuminate the prehistory of mankind. Most of humanity can only sing, cry and talk in the darkness. , dialogue, and the emergence of effective words make it possible to speak one's heart and write one's own words by hand, making it possible for individual contemplation, reflection, and writing. In the process of Dongfang Hongliang, Confucius played the greatest role. Therefore, the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty lamented that if heaven did not give birth to Zhongni, eternity would be like a long night.

But in terms of life’s achievements, Confucius failed. He admitted that he was a loser and was not a successful person. It is said that the imagination of his father caused by the loss of his father made his words and deeds throughout his life dependent on power and the master. But his disciples were better than him at coordinating officials and businessmen, and even became first-class bureaucrats and businessmen. Confucius did not make his own great speeches. His words were humble and not very lofty. They were mostly used to decorate the general autocracy and hierarchical autocracy in China since the three generations or the Duke of Zhou in a more tender way. However, this kind of reflection on life is more worthy of being cherished by the listeners. . The princes are scattered, the government arrests the officials, and the ministers carry out their orders. The world is in decline, and heresy and atrocities are common. Some ministers kill their kings, and some sons kill their fathers. During the Spring and Autumn Period, thirty-six kings were killed, fifty-two countries were destroyed, and countless princes ran around and failed to protect their country. ?At a time when people were living in a state of uncertainty, Confucius’s disciples witnessed the joy and fulfillment of being with their teacher. Therefore, after Confucius died, his most outstanding disciples were able to mourn him for three years when employment opportunities were everywhere, and the great businessman who saved Lu, rebelled against Qi, defeated Wu, forced Jin and dominated Yue was also the No. 1 businessman at that time. Zigong, a first-class diplomatic expert, lived in his tomb for six years. This is infinite certainty in limited time and space, an elegant and noble feeling of faith. Although Confucius's thoughts are out of date when the international community is vying for hegemony like a mad dog, once Liuhe is settled and Haixian is unified, and the differential order pattern of the agricultural era is finalized, his thoughts on benevolence, forgiveness, the ethics of monarch, minister, father and son, etc. will be the king's soil. The loyalty and filial piety of the kings and ministers may be said to be the best choice for the development of life.

Confucius is realistic. He has never sought to settle down and live a life for the individual's birth, old age, illness and death like Sakyamuni. He has not loved wisdom like Socrates and has not been as proud as Jesus? My country is not here In this world, Confucius has no patriotic feelings. His dream is not in Lu, Qi, Chen, and Wei in the Spring and Autumn Period. His dream (historical figure) is in Zhou Gong and more than three generations. The dream did not achieve the reality of great unity, but it inadvertently fulfilled the most scarce ideological theory at that time when civilization was facing a revolution. This dream inadvertently became a "transcendent breakthrough". In Jaspers's words, it was the "Axial Age" in which Confucius participated. The ideological principles of construction have shaped different cultural traditions and have always affected human life. To paraphrase Marx, the traditions of Confucius and others weigh like a nightmare on the hearts of living people.

Why did Confucius in the Axial Age haunt the minds of living people like a nightmare? Explanation from a modern rational perspective is nothing more than social path dependence, accidental preconceptions, etc. He is an "arrow-stack" figure. But Confucius's eternal existence has its own inevitability and its own efforts. Confucius is indeed the earliest and most diligent figure in the Chinese world besides Yu the Day and Mozi.

Yu Mo's diligence is well known to everyone, but Confucius's diligence is rare. His diligent life can be said to be the first life to make people's lives "unity, tension, seriousness and liveliness".

Confucius’s life was an exemplary life. To use the words summarized by later Confucian scholars, he was practical. He not only loved ritual and music, but also lived in the world of ritual and music. He not only expressed the truth, but also lived in the truth he expressed. His love is in the human world rather than in pure self or lust, thus creating the most beautiful and realistic human spiritual home? A cultural China, in which he, Laozi, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Xunzi, Qu It was born out of the dreams of pre-Qin giants such as Zizi, and through thousands of years of scholars, talents, and scholar-bureaucrats opening up the territory, it became the most majestic land with the richest heritage of mankind, and became the eastern continent's confrontation of political rule, power, and money. , clan, superstition, merchants, farmers and workers? The most charming way of life. Confucius is the most solid founder of this cultural China and the inheritor and master of the spirit of civilization of three generations. Since Confucius, all power, money, and blood relatives can rise and fall, but cultural China has survived for hundreds of generations and has lasted throughout the ages.

Although there was more than one founding father of Cultural China, Confucius was the only one who concentrated the resource advantages of Chinese civilization at that time. In modern terms, he not only had ideology, he also cultivated a team of cadres; he not only had products, he also understood marketing; he not only had rationality, he also had rational tools; not only did he provide the founding principles, he also Provided the coordinates of personal survival in the philosophy of diplomacy and the family, state, and world? Analyzed by terms such as general instrumental theory, synergy theory, and difference theory, Confucius truly achieved the great success of modern scientific philosophy in life practice. Therefore, no matter whether it comes from external opposition such as Yang Hu, Shusun Wushu, Qi Jinggong, or internal opposition such as Mozi, Zhuangzi, Chu Kuang, or later Li Zhi, the May Fourth giant, Mao Zedong, and the young generals of the Cultural Revolution, they are not enough. To shake up this country and its deserving founding leader. This is the secret that kept Confucius from falling.

Of course, those who oppose Confucius have sufficient reasons. Once he moves from the margins to the center and reaches the altar, he is used by the political leadership and even by those who hold the right to speak in cultural China. He becomes a tool of control and alienation, and a murder weapon. That is to say, Confucius is the ideology of the farming civilization that resettled the land, is the dream of peace and harmony in this world, and is the cloak of the landlord class; but it is not the self-improvement of the individual soul, nor the open personality of personal enlightenment, nor the heresy of great harmony. power. Whether it is external culture such as Indian civilization and Christian civilization, or the infinitely rich exploration of internal spirit and soul, or even revolutionary transformation, the era of immigration, and the society of strangers, there is Confucius' incredible truth. Confucius and Confucius' hegemony have enough weaknesses, shortcomings, limitations, blind spots, shortcomings, and mistakes for people to hate, escape, and rebel.

But Confucius did not fall. Confucius, like Buddha, Jesus, and Lao Tzu, constitutes the boundary of our known behavior and thinking. Unless, as Zhuangzi said, we go back and forth, stand alone and stand proud of the world, like the idealism of all methods advocated by religionists, and be justified by name and faith, or like the scientism of traveling independently and exploring the infinite. For human beings in the era of transition and immigration, without Confucius, they would indeed have lived a new heaven and a new earth, unprecedented and true. When Wang Anshi lamented that most Chinese saints since the Han Dynasty were born in Buddhism, Zhang Fangping said that because Confucianism was weak and could not contain talents, Master Ma from Jiangxi, Zen Master Wuye from Fenyang, Xuefeng, Yantou, Danxia, ??Yunmen, etc. All first-class geniuses belong to the Shi family. Master Huineng, who is illiterate, once said that all things are born in the mind. The giants of the May Fourth movement said, "Down with the Confucius family store." This is the only way for us as a family to adjust our hearts and lives to the times. Opposing Confucius, overthrowing Confucius, and leaving Confucius are the inevitable process of our civilization moving from the kinship unit to the world and beyond, and the inevitable process of our civilization moving from the China of China to the China of Asia and the China of the world.

Lao Tzu said, the opposite is the movement of Tao. Confucius did not fall. Opposing Confucius and returning to Confucius are both the truth of human nature and civilization.

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If the basic support provided by modern scientific philosophy to modern civilization is effective enough, we can optimistically predict that when the integration of human beings becomes more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, Confucius’ thoughts , words, deeds, and life will be the most impressive individual role models for our human society. Our human society has indeed lived out Laozi and Zhuangzi, Christ and Buddha, but we have also lived out Confucius. The unfinished modernization so far is actually the integration of human beings. In fact, unfinished modernity is a modernity that reaches out to the vast and subtle but fails to return. Its return or completion will be the tolerance of traditional culture or an effective return to the team. It is a very wise and moderate reflection on life. In this regard, neither Laozi nor Socrates, who focused on individualization, nor Jesus or Buddha, who also had the spirit of a leader, were as worldly and lively as Confucius. Civilization is in dynamic balance, in the process of precipitation and accumulation, or it will carry forward the ethics of heaven, earth, king, parent, teacher since Confucius after adding the sixth ethics of strangers, heretics, strange powers and chaotic gods.