A gentleman pursues harmony but not conformity; a villain only pursues complete agreement but does not pursue coordination.

The original text comes from "The Analects of Confucius" by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period: Zilu: Confucius said, "The gentleman is harmonious but different, the villain is harmonious but not harmonious."

"Harmony but different" is Confucius's ideological system important component in. "A gentleman is harmonious but different, and a villain is homogeneous but not harmonious." A gentleman can maintain a harmonious relationship with the people around him, but he must deal with everything through independent thinking of his own brain. He is never willing to follow what others say and blindly agree; but A villain has no independent opinions of his own and only seeks to be in complete agreement with others without paying attention to principles. However, he cannot maintain harmonious and friendly relationships with others. "Harmony without difference" shows the profound philosophy and high wisdom of Confucius' thought.

Extended information

1. Character introduction

Confucius (September 28, 551 BC - April 11, 479 BC), surnamed Zi , Kong family, named Qiu and styled Zhongni, was a native of Zou Yi (now Qufu, Shandong Province) of the state of Lu in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and his ancestral home was Li Yi (now Xiayi, Henan Province) of the Song state. He was an ancient Chinese thinker, educator, and founder of the Confucian school.

Confucius created the culture of private lectures and advocated benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust. He once led some of his disciples to travel around the country for thirteen years. In his later years, he revised the Six Classics of Poems, Book, Rites, Music, Yi, and Spring and Autumn. According to legend, Confucius once asked Laozi for advice and had three thousand disciples, including seventy-two sages. After Confucius's death, his disciples and his subsequent disciples recorded the words, deeds, quotes and thoughts of Confucius and his disciples, and compiled them into the Confucian classic "The Analects of Confucius".

2. The origin of "gentlemen are harmonious but not uniform; villains are homogeneous but not harmonious"

In the pre-Qin era, "harmony" was a very important concept. Difference and unity in diversity are therefore different from “sameness”.

For example, cooking must combine sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty to reach a state where the five flavors are complete and the taste is beyond salty and sour, in order to be considered a top-quality delicacy; such as music, Gong, Shang, Jiao, Yu, and Yu must be combined together to reach a state where the five notes are heard and the sound is outside the palace and Shang, so that it can be regarded as the best music. On the contrary, if a salty person blindly adds salt, Those who are sour will try their best to be jealous, those who love the palace will reject Shang and Jiao, and those who like Shang will not use Yu and Yu. The consequences are not difficult to imagine, but also unimaginable.

It is on the basis of this idea that Confucius introduced the difference between "harmony" and "tong" into the thinking of interpersonal relationships, so there was the sentence in "The Analects of Confucius·Zilu" talk. Chapter 23 of Zilu Chapter of "The Analects of Confucius".