The Analects of Confucius Zi Han IX 0 1: It's hard to say.

The Analects of Confucius Zi Han IX 0 1: It's hard to say.

Zi Han talked about interests, life and kindness.

Mr. Qian Mu interprets this passage in The Analects of Confucius as: Mr. Qian Mu seldom talks about profit on weekdays, but only agrees with life and benevolence. This explanation suddenly turned Confucius into a one-sided and extreme "scholar".

Of course, we can't dig Confucius out of the ground today and ask if this passage means this. Fortunately, the old gentleman was succeeded by others, especially the Confucian spirit advocated by him was carried forward day by day, which became an important part of the whole China cultural gene. Decades later, Mencius, who inherited the mantle of Confucius, was much more dashing and dashing than his grandfathers.

On this day, when Liang met Mencius, he quickly said, "Hey! Will it be good for our country to come all the way? " It means: old man, you have walked so far, what are you going to do to benefit our country?

Mencius waved his hand and said heroically, "Wang! Why is it profitable? It also has meaning. " That means: Your Majesty, why talk about low-level benefits? Let's talk about high-level benevolence.

Reading these two paragraphs of Confucius and Mencius together, we will surely understand that Mencius has indeed inherited the mantle of Confucius and is as real as the original. From to the king! Why make a profit? This is the same strain.

Perhaps a careful interpretation of Mencius will help us better understand Confucius. Mencius waved heroically and fooled Liang. Of course, he can't just rely on his age and academic authority. Let's see how he made it clear that "no profit is needed".

"The king said,' Why is it good for our country?' The doctor said,' Why is it good for my family?' Shu Ren said,' Why is it good for me?' It is dangerous for the state to pay up and down. It means: kings are staring at "how to make our country beneficial", doctors are staring at "how to make my family beneficial", and ordinary people and ordinary people are staring at "how to make themselves beneficial". As a result, the country is at stake!

This is why Mencius focused on benevolence and talked more about "benevolence".

Regarding the "destiny", Confucius said that he "knew the destiny at fifty". He linked "destiny" with "heaven". In his view, destiny originates from heaven and is for "destiny".

Sima Qian said in Historical Records: "It is difficult for Confucius to advocate fate, but it is also difficult to say", which means that Confucius rarely attributed the cause of things to fate because it is difficult to make it clear. Zi Gong, a disciple of Confucius, once said: "Confucius' articles can be obtained and heard;" The nature of Confucius' words, the nature of heaven, cannot be obtained or smelled. "We can hear Confucius' teaching about etiquette and music." Confucius' knowledge about human nature and heaven is hard for us to hear.

It can be seen that this passage in The Analects of Confucius seems to be broken down into the following sentences: Zi Han stresses benefit and life, and benevolence.

This means that Confucius seldom talked about interests and life, but he never talked less about "benevolence". Some people even count the frequency of these topics in the Analects of Confucius in order to prove this point. It is said that "benefit" appeared six times, "fate" appeared seven times and "benevolence" appeared 59 times.

Objectively speaking, such sentence breaking and interpretation cannot be said to be unreasonable. Learning the Analects of Confucius in this way cannot be said to be without merit. But it always gives people a biased feeling. After all, although Confucius was not fully developed, he was at least impartial. You should know that his old man edited the Book of Changes and studied it deeply.

Perhaps, there is another possibility, that is, the son does not talk about profit, but about life and benevolence. The sentence is the same as Mr. Qian Mu's, but the meaning has changed: Confucius rarely puts benefit and life, benefit and benevolence together.

As for why not say it together, today, it can only be said that it is his old man's house.

Putting the "unspeakable secret" of Confucius' and Zigong's words together, "Confucius' words are the nature of heaven, which cannot be obtained and heard" may be vaguely clear, but the complex relations in the world, especially interests and life, interests and benevolence, cannot be explained clearly to everyone, so it is better to say less.