The Analects of Confucius Jing Luo: Gong Yechang Vol.5 No.7.

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5, 7 original text

Confucius said, "If the road doesn't work, you can float on the sea by fork. It's up to you!" Lutz listened to the music. Confucius said, "You Hao is braver than me and has nothing to learn from."

To annotate ...

① bifurcation: a raft used to cross the river.

2 from: follow, follow.

translate

Confucius said, "If my idea doesn't work, I will go overseas by raft. The only person who can follow me is probably Zhong You! " Lutz was very happy to hear that. Confucius said, "Zhongyou, courage has surpassed me, and there is no other talent to be recommended."

Comment and analysis

(542-480 years ago), Taoist and Taoist, whose ancestral home is Lu (a native of Zhongcun Town, Pingyi County, Shandong Province, named after Zhongzi's hometown). One of the "Ten Philosophers of Confucius" was sacrificed by Confucianism. Zhong You is famous for his politics. He is straightforward and brave, and travels around the world with Confucius. He is one of the seventy-two sages of Confucius. The clock has the first stone road, who is the guardian of the future? When Confucius was governor in Lu, he was a prime minister and later a butcher of doctors. In 480 AD, his mother made his younger brother Kuaiqin the monarch, threatened Wei to dismiss him, and fled after hearing the news. When Zhong You heard the news from outside, he went to the city to see Kuai. The crown tassel shot by Kuai Ming. Lutz said, "When a gentleman dies, the crown is inevitable." A gentleman should dress neatly even if he is dying. He was chopped to pieces in the process of tying his hat.

This passage of Confucius is actually an evaluation of Luz. In the troubled times of the Spring and Autumn Period, the benevolent policy advocated by Confucius could not be implemented in all countries. So Mr. Kong was extremely disappointed with everyone in the world, so he complained angrily: "Laozi's thoughts can't be reused, and it's boring to stay here. I'd better go out on a raft. " But Mr. Kong thought, "No, I can go to sea, but I need someone to wait on Lazar. I can't catch fish myself. " Who can go with me? "I saw Mr. Kong's eyebrows a wrinkly, and his plan came to mind. He said slowly, "If you want to go to sea, you can only come with me. Hearing this, Zhong You danced with joy and said to himself, "Teacher, you have said so much, and finally mentioned me. Next, please watch my performance ... "Teacher Kong looked," Hey, what's going on? Just give you a compliment and your tail will go to heaven? Look, I'll get you. Teacher Kong added, "Alas, there is nothing to recommend for being braver than me. "Zhongyou:" ... "(Teacher, if your old man wants to give a jujube, just give him a wooden stick. The students' little hearts can't stand it. )

You see, Mr. Kong is not as serious as you think. On the contrary, he was skinned from time to time. So, what exactly does Mr. Kong mean? Does Mr. Kong really think that Zhong You is just brave? As can be seen from the previous introduction, Zhong You is a brave man, but as one of the 72 sages of Confucius, his talent is also excellent. Then why did Confucius say that only Zhong You could go to sea with him?

First of all, let's look at the sentence that Teacher Kong wants to go to sea. Maybe we think this is a complaint from Mr. Kong, or a small wish. But we often ignore the state of the place where Mr. Kong is going, and even ignore the traffic conditions of Mr. Kong. Teacher Kong is going to the sea, and the key point is here, not going to the sea. It was the sea more than 2000 years ago, and going out is bound to be all kinds of storms, not sightseeing now. So it must be very hard for Mr. Kong to go to sea. Then, there are tools. What is this? It's a fork, a small raft, not a luxury yacht. It's not even comparable to the Titanic, and now it's not even comparable to a fishing boat. So you see, Mr. Kong is going out to sea on a small raft. Now, can you imagine what a dangerous journey this is? With Mr. Kong's skill, I'm afraid going out is just feeding fish. After all, these statements are not as good as Stephen Chow's golden words, let alone fried fish and shrimp, which is estimated to have the opposite effect. Therefore, it is meaningful for Mr. Kong to say that only Zhong You can go with him at this time. First, Zhong, you must be very brave. It is estimated that like the fisherman in The Old Man and the Sea, it is no problem to fight the shark bravely. Second, Zhong You is not only brave, but also brilliant. Only in this way can he preach with Confucius. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a wet blanket for Mr. Kong to say a classic sentence about Zhong You unknown so? Thirdly, Zhong You is bound to devote himself to Taoism, and he is faithful to learning Taoism and lecturing on the classics. Otherwise, leaving Mr. Kong in the middle of the road will really make Mr. Kong stop barking every day. So from this perspective, Zhong You should be a man with both wisdom and courage, and he must be very determined. That's why Mr. Kong praised him so much.

However, Zhong You is still too young to get carried away when he hears the teacher's praise. Therefore, Mr. Kong, who is good at teaching students anytime and anywhere, should mention some young players at an appropriate time, so as not to let Zhong You stop going out with Mr. Kong once he thinks he is great (to be honest, in this chapter, I always feel that Mr. Kong has the sense of sight of Tang Priest, and if I am told every day, I will definitely collapse). As a person who is committed to the Tao, as a person who takes the world as his own responsibility, you can't be complacent because of a little praise. But always pay attention to your own virtue. It can't be said that emotions are intangible, but at least, modesty and prudence are necessary. That is, no matter how determined you are, no matter how excellent you are, you can't stop pursuing perfect morality.

People can be without talent, but they can't be without virtue.

Sima Guang made an incisive exposition on both ability and political integrity in As a Mirror: "Fu Cong thinks that fortitude is talent and loyalty is virtue. Talent is the capital of virtue; De is also handsome. " He defined saints, gentlemen and villains: "A saint with both talent and virtue, a fool with both talent and virtue, a gentleman with virtue and a villain who wins." Sima Guang's argument is targeted, and his selection criteria are: "A sage and a gentleman who can't be a fool would rather be a villain." What Sima Guang said is not without reason. The ideal employment standard is to have both ability and political integrity, but the choice space of this standard is too small, and there are few saints since ancient times. In the case of having both ability and political integrity, fools are a safer choice. Choose a puppet to manipulate, he will be very obedient, because he is stupid, and he has no ability to do good things or do bad things. Little people are different, little people are not.

De, but he is talented. Without virtue, he can't do good things, but he is talented enough to do bad things. The premise of choosing a puppet is to have a good manipulator, otherwise the puppet can't do anything, and the result is that the villain succeeds.

There are countless examples of losing the world because of talent. For example, as we all know, "Being a poet is really peerless, being a poor and unlucky king", Li Yu, Hui Zong, who died in a foreign country, and Emperor Yang Di, who is quite literate in history and is a sober king of national subjugation. These people can't serve the world without virtue, and they can't rule the world with talent. It was a reasonable death.

Therefore, for Mr. Kong, don't forget to cultivate your own virtue whenever and wherever.