The Other Three Corners

       In analect 4.6 Confucius posits that he has never met anyone who either truly loves Goodness nor  hated the lack of goodness. The distinction between the two are not exactly clear. He says that one who loves  goodness, "could not be surpassed, while the one who hated a lack of Goodness would at least be able to  act in a Good fashion, ash he would not tolerate that which is not Good being associated with his person". examining not hating the lack of Goodness and truly loving it, begs the question of what exactly does it  mean for the one who loves Goodness to not be able to be surpassed?       By truly loving Goodness is that to say one will be able to advance beyond simply not wanting to  tolerate that which is not associated to  them? Is tolerance the key difference and separation between the two? Further more if Confucius has  never met anyone who fulfilled the conditions to belong to either category ho...

 Analect 4.19   The Master said, “While your parents are alive, you should not travel far, and when you do travel you must keep to a fixed itinerary”       Have I been a poor son? If so does the modern world dictate that we become bad children in an effort to become stronger citizens? Though I like to believe that Confucius lacked the understanding to see our current times, my belief would ignore the constant ringing of his words. I cannot help but recall the countless number of times I was asked, “What do your parents think of this?” as I spent most of my twenties living abroad in one place to the next. My answer was always, “I don’t think they really mind”. But upon returning most due to COVID, I see now how much I have missed.        There is a strange contrast. Recounting stories of months in the ghetto of Tarlabaşı to my father at the age of twenty-three yielded what I remember as being the proudest eyes. Yet when I call h...

In Analect 4.22 the Master tells us that "People in ancient times were not eager to speak, because they would be ashamed if their actions did not measure up to their words." Given our discussion at the end of last class concerning the "unspokeness" of the analects, I wonder if this quotation offers something of a hermeneutic key for why the book is structured this way. Everything in the Confucian way is offered here: an emphasis on looking to the past as a model for appropriate conduct, virtue in action as an ideal, and a conception of speech that places a premium on choosing one's words carefully.  The Analects may be an artifact of writing made to resemble original speech events, creating the illusion of an almost dramatic structure, but this does not mean that it tells all in the way that a play or dialogue would. Each individual analect feels like a window into the Confucian world that has been carefully chosen only because it reflects the entire message of ...

    January 25, 2022

Analect 1.16   “The Master said, “Do not be concerned about whether or not others know you; be concerned about whether or not you know others”.        What I find most intriguing about Confucius is his focus on moral righteousness. More importantly his focus on its inner value. Though I fashion myself a Taoist, the clear conquest of Confucius to instill unpublicized virtue within us as a path towards the Way strikes hard. That one should recognize that this aimless walk should be aided by an inner moral compass impervious to all just feels right!        To begin I must confess – there I was on the first day of fall semester… daydreaming about an excellent caption for my instagram. Daydreaming about a post that might show the world that I was indeed an MA student at “The Most Contrarian University in America”. That was until I came upon Analect 1.16.        This analect speaks to a foundational error of ...

和 1.12: Master You said: “When it comes to the practice of ritual, it is harmonious ease that is to be valued. It is precisely such harmony that makes the Way of the former Kings so beautiful. If you merely stick rigidly to ritual in all matters, great and small, there will remain that which you cannot accomplish. Yet if you know enough to value harmonious ease but try to attain it without being regulated by the rites, this will not work either.” - Slingerland, pg. 5, Analects Book 1  I’m writing the following post not because I am overly resistant to what we’re learning - I have a lot of respect for it, actually - or, because I am regressively clinging to what I already know, but because I am trying to contend with two opposing trains of thought: having spent a good amount of time admiring Zhuangzi, who uses Confucius as a comedic stock character in his writings, I am trying to find a way to transfer from one mode of teaching to another, which supposedly opposes it.  The con...

  Zixia asked,”[An ode says,]     ‘Her artful smile, with its alluring dimples,     Her beautiful eyes,     The unadorned upon which to paint.’ What does this mean?”      The Master said, “The application of colors comes only after a suitable unadorned background is present.”      Zixia said, “So it is the rites that come after?”      The Master said, “It is you, Zixia, who has awakened me to the meaning of these lines!  It is only with someone like you that I can begin to discuss the Odes.”                             Analects, 3.8. What is the nature of Zixia’s performance in this dialogue that so impresses Confucius?  Zixia asks (or perhaps challenges) Confucius to interpret the poem. Good poems are difficult to interpret.  There is something ...

Here Confucius points to the palm of his hand and tells us that one who understands the di sacrifice "could handle the world as if he had it right here." The commentary on analect 3.10 mentions that the " di sacrifice was a special type of ancestor sacrifice, directed toward the ultimate progenitor of one's ancestral line." The details on how to perform it and by whom it was to be performed are something that had been largely forgotten by the time of the Zhou dynasty, which partially makes sense of Confucius' comment that there is a power that stems from understanding the rite. However, this does not completely explain it; there are still several questions that remain. What is it about sacrificing to one's roots that gives one political power? How are we to take understanding the ritual? Is this a form of knowledge or is it something else? Is the goal of ritual to reorder the individual person or does it have a mimetic effect that simultaneously reorders...

     The pitfall that one can easily fall into while reading the Analects is overlooking Confucius' sharp sense of reality. It is easy to read the Analects as being "idealistic", which I believe is a result of overlooking Confucius' psychological insights. I believe that Confucius was not blind to the darkness that lies within humans, and that his philosophy does address that aspect. Therefore, when reading the Analects, my heart tends to focus on finding evidence for this. I have always been interested in the question of how one can be aware of pitch black darkness and still look to the light. I have an inkling that I can find some kind of answer from the Analects. Book 1: 1.1 The Master said: To study and at due times practice what one has studied, is this not a pleasure? When friends come from distant places, is this not joy? To remain unsoured when his talents are unrecognized, is this not a junzi(gentleman)? I am curious about the connection among the three ...

  This blog will be a collective exploration of the Analects  of Confucius. We'll be taking our cue from the Master's exhortation to ruminate on specific passages and find the hidden corners: The Master said, “I will not open the door for a mind that is not already striving to understand, nor will I provide words to a tongue that is not already struggling to speak. If I hold up one corner of a problem, and the student cannot come back to me with the other three, I will not attempt to instruct him again.”     (Confucius,  Analects  7.8, tr. Slingerland) All of the ancient teachers followed this principle, and probably all real teachers everywhere. They know that knowledge is not something that can be “spread,” and that people only  learn  what they think for themselves. The genuine student, the one who seriously wants to learn and is receptive,  strives  to understand and  struggles  to speak. The opposite of  glib , and ho...