The superior man is superior to the sage? (ES)

      In Confucius's The Doctrine Of The Mean I found passage #12 to be a bit puzzling. Confucius seems

to suggest that the superior man has at least some functions or abilities beyond even sages which I find 

interesting and difficult to accept. In passage 12 Confucius tells us that, "The Way of the superior man 

functions everywhere and yet hidden. Men and women of simple intelligence can share its knowledge;

 and yet in its utmost reaches, there is something which even the sage does not know. Men and women 

of simple intelligence can put it into practice; and yet in its utmost reaches there is something which 

even the sage is not able to put into practice". This passage brings forth several questions for me. First, 

what is it that is hidden in the functions of the superior man? Secondly, what does Confucius mean by 

the utmost reaches of the functions of the superior man. And lastly, how are do these utmost reaches go 

beyond what the sage is able to know and put into practice? It seems like there should be nothing in the 

realms that the sage cannot do or understand, yet there is and from somebody inferior to themselves, 

how? I wonder if what is hidden is what Confucius means by its utmost reaches? But as Confucius 

does not examine and explore further on that point, I do not know.

    In passage #32 Confucius says in regards to the sage that, "Only the perfect sage in the world has

quickness of apprehension, intelligence, insight, and wisdom, which enable him to rule all men; 

magnanimity, generosity, benignity, and tenderness, which enable him to embrace all men; vigor, 

strength, firmness, and resolution, which enable him to maintain a firm hold; orderliness, seriousness, 

adherence to the Mean, and correctness, which enable him to be reverent; pattern, order, refinement, 

and penetration, which enable him to exercise discrimination". Given this whole long chain of 

characteristics and abilities of the sage, I question once again how is there something the sage does not 

know given that they have the most supreme knowledge? How is there something in which the sage

cannot practice if they have the greatest firmness, resoluteness, and the most adherence to the Mean?

From this I wonder exactly how I should understand the difference between the superior man and the 

sage?      

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 29, 2022 at 10:28 AM

    This is a really good observation. Would a good analogy be a basketball coach and his best player? The coach understands the game better, but the player can execute things the coach can't? Not only in athletics but also in any craft activity, or performance activity. i wonder if it has to do with the relation to bodily performance in aging, in which the 90-year-old just knows so much more than the 30-year-old, but the latter can DO more. Or is it more about the nature of their functioning? The Junzi's role is in action and behavior.

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