The Lazy Confucius They Don't Want You to Know About! (JS)

Part of Analects 18.7   

The old man said, “A man whose limbs have never moved in labor, who can’t tell one grain from another – who is your master?” Then he planted his staff in the ground and began weeding.  

    

    Pairing and contrasting the role of a Junzi in government next to this idea of agricultural cultivation and working with one’s hands is of note. It seems even more poignant that Zilu is the one that delivers the function of the Junzi at the close of the passage. Similarly, I can’t help but wonder why this apparent insult to Confucius is included in the Analect. Are we supposed to ignore the words of the recluse and believe Zilu? Considering the light in which we have seen Zilu in the past, one would think not.   

    The recluses are not hermits. I believe they offer valuable insight on the Way and still exist as a part of the greater society. As seen in this Analect, the recluse is able to feed and shelter Zilu and presents his two sons to him. While not engaging in politic, the recluse seems to be embodying a filial Way. Zilu, unable to recognize the greatness of this man, can only see it when Confucius points it out. As Zilu failed to sniff out the recluse, are we to trust his final assessment of the matter?    

    Can this be seen as a parable symbolizing the necessity of the recluse for the Junzi? Surely Confucius would be downhearted if along his travels he never met with receptive ears. Further, is there truth in the words of the recluse in this passage criticizing the Master? Might we always need the judgement of virtuous others who are not worried about our own judgement upon them?   

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 29, 2022 at 9:45 AM

    Good questions, but follow up on them. You're suggesting that the recluse is the Junzi's alter ego, his alternative way -- so that being a Junzi will always be a choice and commitment. I like the insight that "the recluse is not a hermit." The recluse has an immediate but smaller community, has an ethic of hospitality, and also carries in his head a cultural community.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analects 3.11

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...
Read more

和 [hé] - Harmonious Ease in the practice of ritual (Analects 1.12) (RG)

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...
Read more

Christopher McCandless: The White Boy Who Could Have Just Read Confucius

“The cultivation of the person is done through the Way, and the cultivation of the Way is to be done through humanity. Humanity is Man.”       In this cosmic game of Confucian ping-pong, two are required to play. The emphasis that Confucius continues to place on virtue needing others to reach realization is of great importance in today’s day and age. Too often we are lead to believe that locking ourselves away in pursuit of accomplishing one great task is not only necessary to producing great work but also virtuous. Whether it be the pursuit of money or higher learning, to laboriously and single-mindedly chase after it often leads to higher social ranking. Confucius however, recognized the pitfalls of such narrow-mindedness and emphasis on self-importance.        Christopher McCandless, an infamous hero of western youth, seems to have struggled to the point of death to understand what Confucius considered basic truth… In order to obtain vir...
Read more