Confucius' greatness is borrowed from a sentence of Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties: "Heaven will not give birth to Zhong Ni, and the earth will last as long as night". It says: If Confucius was not born, the world would be dark forever. After Confucius was born, the world was bright.
Coincidentally, the Christian Bible also said that God created light, and human beings also had light. According to Greek mythology, Prometheus brought fire from God to the human world and was punished forever, which shows the importance of fire: fire is light. This shows that the pursuit of light is universal.
But is it too much to say that with Confucius, the world will have light, and Confucius is not a god? Today we get to know Confucius again, not to mythologize him, but not to take a down-to-earth stand. We must go deep into the world of meaning, spirit and value behind the language and tell the truth about the greatness of Confucius.
Confucius' contribution
In all fairness, Confucius' contribution is well-founded, at least as follows:
1. Confucius is an original educator. Whether he is the first person in history can be put aside first. At least, his teaching scale, teaching attitude, teaching methods and contemporaries are unparalleled. He is definitely a pioneering figure, who initiated the folk education in China and is called "the most sacred teacher".
Second, Confucius was a man who really understood education. The object of his education is people, not just cultural knowledge and music operation. The purpose of teaching people is to make them grow up, but in reality, people are different in temperament, personality and degree, so we should teach them in accordance with their aptitude. Different students give different answers, which can also go deep into students' hearts, inspire them according to their confusion and persuade them to stop.
Third, Confucius is a great scholar. His knowledge is completely accumulated, and he is very studious, and he is confident about it himself:
"In a city with ten rooms, there must be people who are loyal to Qiu, but not as eager to learn as Qiu" (The Analects of Confucius, Gongye Chang).
Because he is diligent and eager to learn, he is not only proficient in six arts, but also knowledgeable, and many rare problems can be solved by him.
Fourthly, Confucius is the collator and master of ancient documents. According to his knowledge, Confucius divided it into six arts to teach people. However, at that time, Zhou declined, "rites and music were abolished, and poetry and books were lacking." So Confucius followed the ceremony of three generations, making fun with pens, deleting poems, prefacing books, performing the Book of Changes and cutting Spring and Autumn Annals. Thus, China's cultural purpose was established.
5. Confucius' attitude towards life and moral cultivation became an example for China people. His love for culture, commitment to Tao, concern for people, persistence in ideals, emphasis on self-cultivation and requirements for personality are all very positive. In particular, he was born in troubled times, giving up all rites and music. He rebuilt Zhou Wen's positive attitude, knowing that he could not do it, which highlighted the Confucian character of not being afraid of difficulties and was regarded as a saint by later generations.
Confucius' position in the history of world culture
From the perspective of the world, Confucius is one of the founders of human civilization. According to the German philosopher Jasper, more than two thousand years ago, several prophets appeared in human society at the same time. They are Confucius in China, Buddha in India, Socrates in Greece and later Jesus. Jasper called this era "Axis Age", which means that human culture will revolve around them in the future.
This does point out that Confucius' unique contribution has a historical position, but I think this understanding is not enough. If we only look at the results and impact, we will give up everything. We should go back to Confucius' life and know his praiseworthy qualities before we know what we should learn from him or commemorate.
Confucius is most valuable in two aspects:
First, from the perspective of Confucius' personality, his practical learning spirit: continuous learning and continuous improvement, let us see that Confucius' knowledge of life growth is not empty, but real and becomes a model;
The second is Confucius' discovery of "benevolence", which is the most profound awakening to life: people are human because they have this trait, have the requirement of self-growth, naturally require self-opening, and hope to feel the same with others and interact with each other, so there is a world of temperament, harmony, morality and culture.
Confucius walked all his life.
We say: Confucius, as a historical figure, left behind a testimony of the way of life growth. Confucius took care of himself in his later years, and the summary can be divided into many stages, with a breakthrough every ten years:
"I am determined to learn five out of ten, stand at thirty, not be confused at forty, know my destiny at fifty, listen to my ears at sixty, and not overstep my bounds at seventy." ("The Analects of Confucius for Politics")
Confucius' growth began with his "ambition to learn". Confucius is very studious. He asked himself that he was not a first-class wise man, not "born with knowledge", but "learn from the past and be sensitive" (The Analects of Confucius). "Min" means diligence, hard work, learning at once, being slow and understanding.
Why did Confucius study so hard? Because "being interested in learning" is actually "being interested in Tao", Tao is ideal, Tao is truth, Tao is the avenue that everyone can walk and move, Tao is the ultimate value with universal significance, all learning is to realize this value, and Tao is the goal of learning.