Superphysics
The Importance of Harmony and Consistency
2 minutes • 421 words
My children, why does no one of you study the Odes?
They are adapted to:
- rouse the mind
- assist observation
- make people sociable
- arouse virtuous indignation.
They speak of duties:
- the duty of ministering to a parent
- the duty of serving one’s prince
It is from them that one becomes conversant with the names of many birds, and beasts, and plants, and trees.
To his son Pih-yu he said:
“Study you the Odes of Chow and the South, and those of Shau and the South.
The man who does not study these is like a person facing a wall!
‘Etiquette demands it,’ so people plead. But do not these hankerings after jewels and silks indeed demand it?
Or it is, ‘The study of Music requires it’
‘Music requires it’. But do not these predilections for bells and drums require it?”
They who assume an outward appearance of severity, but are inwardly weak, are like low common men.
- They are like thieves that break through walls and steal
The plebeian kind of respect for piety is the very pest of virtue.
- Listening on the road, and repeating in the lane this is abandonment of virtue.
Ah, the low-minded creatures! How is it possible to serve one’s prince in their company?
Before they have got what they wanted they are all anxious to get it.
After they have gotten it, they are all anxious of losing it.
There is no length to which they will not go to avoid losingg it.
In olden times people had 3 moral infirmities which are now unknown.
Ambitiousness in those olden days showed itself in momentary outburst. The ambitiousness of today runs riot.
Austerity in those days had its sharp angles. In these it is irritable and perverse.
Feebleness of intellect then was at least straightforward; in our day it is never aught but deceitful.
Rarely do we find mutual good feeling where there is fine speech and studied mien.
I find it abhorrent that:
- the purple color should be made to detract from that of vermilion
- the Odes of Ch’ing should be allowed to introduce discord in connection with the music of the Festal Songs and Hymns
- sharp-whetted tongues should be permitted to subvert governments
Would that I could dispense with speech!
Sir, if you were never to speak, what should your pupils have to hand down from you?
Does Heaven ever speak? The four seasons come and go, and all creatures live and grow. Does Heaven indeed speak?
