Confucius in 90 Minutes |
by Paul Strathern |
A Progressive Living Book Review
Representative Quotations
Mission Statement
None (but presumably the desire to impart an acquaintance with the thought of Confucius in 90 minutes or so was somewhere among his intentions).
Samples
"The sixth century B.C. was arguably the most significant in human evolution since the first caveman inadvertently set fire to his home. Beside witnessing the birth of Confucius, this century also saw the founding of Taoism, the birth of Buddha, and the inception of Greek philosophy. Why these vital intellectual events should have taken place just then, for the most part in civilizations that were in disparate states of development and had no contact with each other, remains a mystery."
"Confucius was essentially a moral teacher. He was always sincere and distrusted eloquence. His aim was to teach his pupils how to behave properly. If they wished to rule people, they must first learn how to rule themselves. But the very core of his teaching has a familiar ring: virtue means to love one another. This, humanity's most profound moral sentiment, was articulated by Confucius more than five hundred years before the birth of Christ."
"Confucius had little time for . . . Taoism. It represented an inwardness that caused the individual to withdraw from society. For Confucius, morality was all about involvement in society."
". . . it is up to each of us to cultivate whatever moral potential we possess. This should be our major moral concern, and it was the failure to do so that caused Confucius concern. "Failure to cultivate virtue, failure to ponder upon what I have learned, inability to stand up for what I know is right, inability to reform my defects — these are the things that worry me."
"Public order could be maintained either by punishment or by example. 'Lead the people by edicts, restrain them by punishment—and they will keep out of trouble but develop no sense of shame. Lead them by virtue, restrain them with ritual—and they will develop a sense of shame and reform themselves by joining together.' This looks like optimism of the highest order. And in the context of sixth-century B.C. China—during the troubled period of the Chou dynasty, when the country was ruled by squabbling petty dicators and warlords—such humane advice appears to be sublime lunacy. There was nothing whatsoever to be gained from such a course of action. Ruling made easy? A contented population? What next? What was significant about his attitude was its sheer originality. Te was nothing less than an evolutionary step forward. Compassion, nobility, example—these were indeed novelties in a world of primitive savagery. They appeared impossible; their survival would need nothing short of a miracle. But the miracle eventually happened, both in China (with Confucianism) and in the West (with Christianity). Without this humanitarian element emerging from the savagery of internecine struggle, there would have been no humane civilization. . . ."
"
It is difficult to account for this 'impossible' evoutionary step in human society, which first became generally articulated by Confucius. What led him to propose this new humanity? We can only guess. With hindsight we can see that it was a way of allowing us to climb out of the mire of barbarism and fulfill our potential as human beings. Did Confucius instinctively realize this? . . .
". . .Confucius certainly had an unspoken belief in something. It was not transcendental, but it served much the same core purpose as any religion. He believed in the moral purpose of humanity. We have a duty to make ourselves better, to become as fully human as possible, and to become better human beings. This was the only meaningful way to live. There were no rewards in the afterlife for success, or even punishments for failure. The enterprise was to be pursued for its own sake, regardless of the consequences. Here more than two millennia before Darwin, was a secular religion uttterly in accord with evolution. In its own way, this was an expression of the ultimate nobility in humanity—the pursuit of good for its own sake."
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