Detailed Analysis of "The Analects" — For All Who Misinterpret Confucius (Seven)
2006/10/18 12:17:29
"The Analects," the foremost book of Chinese civilization, opens with: "The Master said: To learn and practice it in due time, is this not a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is this not a joy? When others do not understand yet one feels no resentment, is this not the mark of a true gentleman?"
"The Bible," the foremost book of Western civilization, opens with: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said: 'Let there be light,' and there was light."
Comparing the two, the distinction between them is obvious. This distinction constitutes a major divergence between Chinese learning and Western learning, and further constitutes a major divergence in the modes of thinking and states of existence between Chinese and Westerners.
"The Master said" corresponds to the present moment, the current world, humanity; while "In the beginning" corresponds to origins, to the root cause, to God. For Chinese learning, the thinking and existential structure of "Heaven, Earth, and Humanity" is immediate and present. What is meant by "the present moment" is "bearing responsibility." Any investigation into origins must take this present-moment bearing of responsibility as its premise. In other words, all science, religion, and art take this "Heaven, Earth, and Humanity" thinking and existential structure of bearing responsibility as their premise. You are, first and foremost, a human being — moreover, a human being existing in the world, between Heaven and Earth. Without this bearing of responsibility, everything is nonsense. "Humanity," for Chinese learning, is not a premise, because every premise takes humanity as its premise — even the word "premise" itself takes humanity as its premise. So how could humanity be confined by any single premise?
And what is the Western mode of existence and thinking? Plato had his famous Allegory of the Cave, saying that people are as if inside a cave and must walk outside, relying on the light of reason to see the world clearly. This metaphor completely encapsulates the entire state of Western learning and Western people since Plato. Here there is no bearing of responsibility — people need to rely on the light of reason. This light of reason, in Christianity, became God. Christianity is essentially the mystification of Platonic thought. Later, science replaced the position of God, but whether it is reason, God, or science, humanity remains enslaved. Humans cannot bear responsibility on their own, cannot face the world on their own; they must rely on something — and even if that something is called "the light of reason," it is still the thinking of a typical coward.
For Westerners, they can be tragic like the ancient Greeks, resisting fate, but human dignity is merely a deduced conclusion or hypothetical premise. Yet only slaves need liberation, only slaves need freedom, only slaves need dignity — and you are inherently liberated, inherently free, inherently dignified. Why would you need some contrived liberation to liberate you, freedom to free you, dignity to dignify you? You need only bear responsibility — bear it as a human being. Bear what? Bear this Heaven and Earth. Humanity is the heart of Heaven and Earth; Heaven and Earth are humanity's bodily shell. If you cannot even bear your own bodily shell, can you still call yourself human?
Bearing responsibility — this is the true spirit of "The Analects" and of Confucianism. What is bearing responsibility? It is like what this ID wrote in the ci poem "Liu Zhou Ge Tou": "Entering the red dust to perform. Astounding Heaven and Earth, the great roc spreads its wings. Harnessing wind and thunder, bearing eternal sin, never regretting in the end. Straightening one's robes, standing among the clouds, shaking out ambitions that soar above the heavens. The Milky Way falls, breaching the star-banks, bending the sun's orbit, spinning the warp and weft, revolving Heaven and Earth. In turbid filth alike, absorbing all of the sky's vast qi, surging against towering peaks, sending whale-waves to overturn the seas. Raising a cup and singing aloud — one cup shared through all of eternity." This is what bearing responsibility means. There is no need to hypothesize anything about the light of reason here, nor to hypothesize any God. If there really were such a thing as reason or God, they could only be humanity's reason, humanity's God — ultimately, they all need humanity to bear them. Humanity — its vast, noble qi fills Heaven and Earth, making even Heaven and Earth seem small. One person becomes great, one person achieves the greatness of Heaven and Earth. Without this breadth of spirit, without this noble vastness, one has no qualification to discuss Confucianism, no qualification to discuss "The Analects."
Of course, not everyone within Western learning is muddleheaded. For instance, Marx and Heidegger — what they demonstrated was a path entirely different from the Western learning that came after Plato. In terms of temperament, Marx took the firm, yang path, while Heidegger took the soft, yin path. Research in this area will not be expanded upon here. The point is simply to illustrate that those who are self-deprecating and take pleasure in selling out their ancestors not only fail to understand Chinese learning, but are equally clueless about Western learning. To borrow Guo Degang's manner of speaking, two words for these people: Drop dead!
(To be continued)
Strictly prohibit plagiarism — violators will be prosecuted
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缠中说禅 2006/10/19 15:50:04
Announcement
Everything this ID writes in "Detailed Analysis of 'The Analects' — For All Who Misinterpret Confucius" is unprecedented. Arrangements have already been made for publication after completion, so the serialization will only appear on this ID's blog. Please refrain from reposting if possible. If you must repost, be sure to credit the source, to avoid copyright lawsuits later.
Strictly prohibit plagiarism — violators will be prosecuted
缠中说禅 2006/10/18 12:30:37
Plagiarism is rampant nowadays. Everything this ID writes is unprecedented. If anyone plagiarizes in the future, please help collect evidence. This matter absolutely cannot be treated with wishy-washy tolerance. "The Analects" is not long, but turning it into colloquial white-text will make it quite lengthy — I estimate it will take a year and a half to write. Going forward, I'll try to maintain one piece per day, with weekends off. Other articles also need writing — the volume is a bit heavy, but I'll do my best to keep up.