Superphysics
Wisdom and Philanthropy
6 minutes • 1266 words
Table of contents
Yen-Yung might pass for a prince!
Yen Yung asked his opinion of a certain individual. The Master replied that he is passable, but impetuous.
But if a man habituate himself to a reverent regard for duty even while in his way of doing things he is impetuous in the oversight of the people committed to his charge, is he not passable?
If, on the other hand, he habituate himself to impetuosity of mind, and show it also in his way of doing things, is he not then over-impetuous?
You are right.
Which of the disciples were devoted to learning?
Yen-Hwi who loved learning so much that he never made the same error twice.
Unfortunately he died young. Now, his like is not to be found. I have never heard of one so devoted to learning."
While Tsz-hwa, a disciple, was away on a mission to Ts’i, the disciple Yen-Yu applied for some grain on behalf of his mother.
Give her 3 pecks.
He applied for more.
Give her 8, then.
Yen-Yu gave his mother 50 times that amount.
When Tsz-hwa went on that journey to Ts’i, he had well-fed steeds yoked to his carriage, and was arrayed in light furs. I have learnt that the ‘superior man’ should help those whose needs are urgent, not help the rich to be more rich.
When Yuen-Sz became prefect under Confucius, he gave him 900 measures of grain. But the prefect declined to accept them*.
*At this time Confucius was Criminal Judge in his native State of Lu. Yuen Sz had been a disciple. The commentators add that this was the officer’s proper salary, and that he did wrong to refuse it.
You must not decline my offer. These might be of use to the villages and hamlets around you
Regarding Yen-Yung, if the offspring of a speckled ox were red and horned, even though men may not wish to take it for sacrifice, would the spirits of the hills and streams reject it?
For 3 months, Hwi will retain his feeling of good-will towards his fellow-men. Others might keep such a feeling for only a day or a month.
Are Tsz-Lu, Tsz-Kung, and Yen-Yu fit to serve the government?
Tsz-Lu is a man of decision. What should prevent him from serving the government?
Tsz-Kung is a man of perspicacity. Yen-Yu is versed in the polite arts.
The head of the Ki family sent for Min-Tsz-Kien to make him governor of the town of Pi.
Politely decline for me. If the offer is renewed, then I shall go and live on the further bank of the Wan.
Peh-niu had fallen ill, and Confucous was asking about him. He held his hand from the window.
It is taking him off! Alas, his appointed time has come! Such a man, and to have such an illness!"
Hwi was a right, worthy man! With his simple wooden dish of rice, and his one gourd-basin of drink, away in his poor back lane, in a condition too grievous for others to have endured, he never allowed his cheery spirits to droop.
I apologize but I do not take pleasure in your doctrines; it is that I am not strong enough.
It is when those who are not strong enough have made some moderate amount of progress that they fail and give up; but you are now drawing your own line for yourself.
Tsz-Hi, Let your scholarship be that of gentlemen, and not like that of common men.
When Tsz-yu became governor of Wu-shing, Confucius said to him:
Do you find good men around you?
There is Tan-t’ai Mieh-ming, who:
- eschews by-paths when walking
- never approaches my house unless there is some public function.
Mang Chi-fan is no sounder of his own praises.
During a stampede he was in the rear. As they were about to enter the city gate, he whipped up his horses and said:
Twas not my daring made me lag behind. My horses would not go.'"
Whoever has not the glib utterance of the priest T’o, as well as the handsomeness of Prince Chu of Sung, will find it hard to keep out of harm’s way in the present age.
Who can go out but by that door? Why doesn’t anyone follow these guiding principles?
- The man from the countryside has more plain naturalness than polish
- The town scribe has more polish than naturalness
The ideal man has both naturalness and polish equally evident.
The life of a man is his rectitude. Life without it such may you have the good fortune to avoid!
They who know it are not as those who love it, nor they who love it as those who rejoice in it that is, have the fruition of their love for it.
To the average man, and those above the average, it is possible to discourse on higher subjects; to those from the average downwards, it is not possible.
Wisdom and Philantrophy
What is wisdom?
Wisdom is in working to:
- promote righteous conduct
- be serious in regard to spiritual beings, and to hold aloof from them
What is philanthropy?
Those who possess that virtue find difficulty with it at first, but find success later.
- Men of practical knowledge find their gratification among the rivers of the lowland.
- Such men are active and bustling. They take their day of pleasure.
- Men of sympathetic social feeling find theirs among the hills.
- Such men are calm and quiet. They look to length of days.
Alluding to the States of Ts’i and Lu, he observed, that Ts’i, by one change, might attain to the condition of Lu; and that Lu, by one change, might attain to good government.
An exclamation of the Master (satirizing the times, when old terms relating to government were still used while bereft of their old meaning)
“A quart, and not a quart! quart, indeed! quart, indeed!”
Suppose a philanthropic person were told that someone fell down in the well. Would he go down after him? Why should he really do so?
The good man or, a superior man might be induced to go. But not to go down.
He may be misled, but not befooled.
The superior man with his wide study of books, and hedging himself round by the Rules of Propriety, is not surely, after all that, capable of overstepping his bounds.
Nan-tsz had scandalized his disciple Tsz-Lu. Confucius uttered the solemn adjuration:
Nan-tsz, if I have done aught amiss, may Heaven reject me!
How far-reaching is the moral excellence that flows from the Constant Mean!*
It has for a long time been rare among the people.
*The doctrine afterwards known by that name, and which gave its title to a Confucian treatise.
Suppose the case of one who confers benefits far and wide on the people, and who can, in so doing, make his bounty universally felt how would you speak of him? Might he be called philanthropic?
What a work for philanthropy! He would require indeed to be a sage! He would put into shade even Yau and Shun!
Well, a philanthropic person, desiring for himself a firm footing, is led on to give one to others; desiring for himself an enlightened perception of things, he is led on to help others to be similarly enlightened.
If one could take an illustration coming closer home to us than yours, that might be made the starting-point for speaking about philanthropy.
