Superphysics
Philanthropy and Friendships
8 minutes • 1518 words
How should a person regard his fellow-man?
Self-control, and a habit of falling back upon propriety, virtually effect it.
Let these conditions be fulfilled for one day, and every one round will betake himself to the duty.
Is it to begin in one’s self, or think you, indeed! it is to begin in others?
Without Propriety use not your eyes, ears, tongue, nor any limb of your body.
I may be lacking in diligence. But with your favor I will endeavor to carry out this advice.
How should men regard his fellow-man?
When you go forth from your door, be as if you were meeting some guest of importance. When you are making use of the common people (for State purposes), be as if you were taking part in a great religious function. Do not set before others what you do not desire yourself. Let there be no resentful feelings against you when you are away in the country, and none when at home."
How can we do this?
The words of the man who has a proper regard for his fellows are uttered with difficulty.
Where there is difficulty in doing, will there not be some difficulty in utterance?
What are ‘superior men’?
Superior men are free from trouble and apprehension.
Does that make them ‘superior men’?
Where there is found, upon introspection, to be no chronic disease, how shall there be any trouble? how shall there be any apprehension?
I am troubled because I am alone in having no brother, while all else have theirs younger or elder.
I have heard that: ‘Death and life have destined times; wealth and honors rest with Heaven. Let the superior man keep watch over himself without ceasing, showing deference to others, with propriety of manners�and all within the four seas will be his brethren. How should he be distressed for lack of brothers!’" [29]
How can we say if a man is “enlightened”?
An enlightened man is someone with whom drenching slander and cutting calumny gain no currency. Such men are extremely enlightened.
What are the essentials of government?
A government has 3 essentials:
- Sufficient food
- Sufficient armament
- The people’s confidence
But if you cannot really have all three, and one has to be given up, which would you give up first?
The armament.
And if you are obliged to give up one of the remaining two, which would it be?
The food. Death has been the portion of all men from of old. Without the people’s trust nothing can stand.
Give me the inborn qualities of a gentleman, and I want no more. How are such to come from book-learning?"
Sir, I regret to hear such words from you. A gentleman! But ‘a team of four can ne’er o’er-take the tongue!’ Literary accomplishments are much the same as inborn qualities, and inborn qualities as literary accomplishments. A tiger’s or leopard’s skin without the hair might be a dog’s or sheep’s when so made bare.
Duke Ngai was consulting Minister Yu Joh.
It is a year of dearth. There is an insufficiency for Ways and Means. What am I to do?
Why not apply the Tithing Statute?
But two tithings would not be enough for my purposes. What would be the good of applying the Statute?
So long as the people have enough left for themselves, who of them will allow their prince to be without enough? But�when the people have not enough, who will allow their prince all that he wants?
How can the standard of virtue be raised? How can we discern what was illusory or misleading?
Give a foremost place to honesty and faithfulness, and tread the path of righteousness, and you will raise the standard of virtue. As to discerning what is illusory, here is an example of an illusion= �Whom you love you wish to live; whom you hate you wish to die. To have wished the same person to live and also to be dead�there is an illusion for you."
Duke King of Ts’i consulted Confucius about government.
Let a prince be a prince, and ministers be ministers; let fathers be fathers, and sons be sons.
Good! Truly if a prince fail to be a prince, and ministers to be ministers, and if fathers be not fathers, and sons not sons, then, even though I may have my allowance of grain, should I ever be able to relish it?
The man to decide a cause with half a word is Tsz-Lu!"
Tsz-Lu never let a night pass between promise and performance. “In hearing causes, I am like other men,” said the Master. “The great point is�to prevent litigation.”
Tsz-chang having raised some question about government, the Master said to him, “In the settlement of its principles be unwearied; in its administration�see to that loyally.”
“The man of wide research,” said he, “who also restrains himself by the Rules of Propriety, is not likely to transgress.” Again, “The noble-minded man makes the most of others’ good qualities, not the worst of their bad ones. Men of small mind do the reverse of this.” Ki K’ang was consulting him about the direction of public affairs. Confucius answered him, “A director should be himself correct. If you, sir, as a leader show correctness, who will dare not to be correct?” Ki K’ang, being much troubled on account of robbers abroad, consulted Confucius on the matter.
If you were not covetous, neither would they steal, even were you to bribe them to do so.
Ki K’ang, when consulting Confucius about the government, said, “Suppose I were to put to death the disorderly for the better encouragement of the orderly�what say you to that?”
Sir, in the administration of government why resort to capital punishment? Covet what is good, and the people will be good. The virtue of the noble-minded man is as the wind, and that of inferior men as grass; the grass must bend, when the wind blows upon it."
Tsz-chang asked how otherwise he would describe the learned official who might be termed influential.
What, I wonder, do you mean by one who is influential?
I mean one who is sure to have a reputation throughout the country, as well as at home.
That is reputation, not influence.
The influential man, then, if he be one who is genuinely straightforward and loves what is just and right, a discriminator of men’s words, and an observer of their looks, and in honor careful to prefer others to himself�will certainly have influence, both throughout the country and at home.
The man of mere reputation, on the other hand, who speciously affects philanthropy, though in his way of procedure he acts contrary to it, while yet quite evidently engrossed with that virtue�will certainly have reputation, both in the country and at home.
Fan Ch’i, strolling with him over the ground below the place of the rain-dance, said to him, “I venture to ask how to raise the standard of virtue, how to reform dissolute habits, and how to discern what is illusory?”
“Ah! a good question indeed!” he exclaimed.
“Well, is not putting duty first, and success second, a way of raising the standard of virtue? And is not attacking the evil in one’s self, and not the evil which is in others, a way of reforming dissolute habits?
And as to illusions, is not one morning’s fit of anger, causing a man to forget himself, and even involving in the consequences those who are near and dear to him�is not that an illusion?” The same disciple asked him what was meant by “a right regard for one’s fellow-creatures.”
It is love to man.
Asked by him again what was meant by wisdom,
It is knowledge of man.
Fan Ch’i did not quite grasp his meaning.
Lift up the straight, set aside the crooked, so can you make the crooked straight.
Fan Ch’i left him, and meeting with Tsz-hi� he said, “I had an interview just now with the Master, and I asked him what wisdom was.
In his answer he said, ‘Lift up the straight, set aside the crooked, and so can you make the crooked straight.’ What was his meaning?” “Ah! words rich in meaning, those,” said the other. “When Shun was emperor, and was selecting his men from among the multitude, he ’lifted up’ K�u-y�u; and men devoid of right feelings towards their kind went far away. And when T’ang was emperor, and chose out his men from the crowd, he ’lifted up’ I-yin�with the same result.”
Tsz-Kung was consulting him about a friend.
Speak to him frankly and respectfully. Gently lead him on. If you do not succeed, then stop. Do not submit yourself to indignity.
The learned Tsang observed, “In the society of books the ‘superior man’ collects his friends; in the society of his friends he is furthering good-will among men.”
